“Why does EVERYTHING have sleeves? The feeling of being inadequate hit me like a freight train. I didn’t sleep. I didn’t eat. ‘How are we supposed to raise a child with no arms?’”
‘We can’t see any arms.’ I was chasing shadows and clinging to hope there was a mistake.’: Mom gives birth to son with TAR Syndrome, ‘No arms? No problem!’
‘When it was my turn to play dress-up, they paused. ‘Oh, Liz, there aren’t any princesses left.’ My confidence was shattered.’: Woman with GoldenHar Syndrome advocates for facial equality
“The blonde girl was Cinderella, the brunette was Belle. ‘Liz, you can be the mother.’ There was no princess that resembled what I looked like, no role for me to play.”
‘He’s called a hero or a saint, simply for being with me.’: Woman with Osteogenesis Imperfecta advocates for disability awareness
“He doesn’t see ‘past’ my disability because my disability is part of me! He sees it, he sees me, and he loves all of me.”
‘In front of the entire train, he pointed at me and shouted, ‘Look at that freak!’ I broke down into floods of tears.’: Man with cystic hygroma shares self-love journey
“‘You don’t look like the other boys. You look different.’ I was sick of giving power to strangers. It was time to take back control.”
‘The test results are in. I hate to tell you this.’: Mom births rainbow baby with sickle cell disease
“Our tiny baby had an IV in his foot. Watching a team of nurses poke your baby with a needle is such a helpless feeling.”
‘THEY don’t have the muscles to get the right latch.’ He is not a ‘they.’: Mom advocates for son with Down syndrome
“The doctor said, ‘He may go home on oxygen.’ Little did they know the stubbornness I had. The love of a mother determined to get her baby home.”
‘Her legs look shorter than average.’ I brushed it off and laughed.’: Mom births daughter with dwarfism, ‘She’s the miracle I never knew I needed’
“My doctor came in, very somber. ’We’re concerned she has a growth issue.’ When she was welcomed into the world and laid on my chest, everything clicked and I knew.”
‘I was tired of staring at negative pregnancy tests and empty bedrooms.’: Foster mom battling infertility says ‘no matter how I’m called to mother, I’m a whole person’
“I mourned the potential loss of a forever family. My heart was double aching for the loving home I knew we could provide a child in need.”
‘You can’t be THAT deaf. You can speak to me.’ My disability was always up for debate.’: Advocate urges ‘there’s no right or wrong way to be deaf’
“They pulled out my eardrums. ‘You’ll be permanently deaf by 30.’ I was devastated.”
‘We won’t call you unless there’s bad news.’ I’ll never forget hearing the phone ring.’: Mom shares daughter’s Down syndrome diagnosis, ‘My eyes see beauty so differently’
“I grieved the baby I thought I was going to have. I grieved the baby I thought I wanted. I felt not fit for this.”
