“‘I don’t want to keep doing this. I can’t.’ I was sitting on the floor of our dream home. ‘What?’ His voice cracked. I could hear the pain and disbelief. ‘Is this really happening?’ I knew in my gut I wouldn’t recover in this marriage. I needed space. I needed to find out if I could survive this hidden trauma. I’d been lying to the world, but worse, I’d been lying to myself. I hated sharing my new home.”
‘Where do I go?’ His voice cracked. My ex-husband slept on my couch, I’d lock my bedroom door and leave.’: Mom recalls ‘awkward’ co-parenting while her ex-husband slept on her couch after marriage split
‘Please,’ they begged. ‘Would you take in a newborn, just for the weekend?’ I knew my husband would say no.’: Foster mom adopts ‘special little boy,’ is forever grateful for her son ‘who almost wasn’t’
“I could literally hear water balloons whizzing over my husband’s head. ‘What?!! Are you crazy? Heck No!’ I expected this. But I couldn’t let it go. I pictured this baby alone, in need of someone to hold him, to help him feel safe. ‘Please honey, just consider it,’ I urged. ‘It’s only for the weekend!’ Around 9 p.m., there was a knock on my door. ‘We’ll take good care of you this weekend, little guy.’ I snuggled him softly.”
‘To my ex-husband on our wedding anniversary, I’m angry at my 19-year-old self for marrying you.’: Woman admits she was ‘barely surviving’ in her marriage, says ‘we both sucked at loving each other’
“A year ago today we rented an Airbnb and had dinner at some hip restaurant. We were parenting 4 children and adopting a fifth. We had just moved into a big, beautiful home with lots of space for our growing family, close to our best friends. We looked like the perfect little family, but we were fooling ourselves.”
‘An elderly woman behind us said, ‘he’s beautiful.’ We both responded with a resounding, ‘Thank you!’: Adoptive mom says her son’s 17-year-old birth mother was her ‘saving grace,’ she’ll forever ‘be in awe’ of her
“She was innocently attempting to make sense of us 3. I followed up quickly. ‘I had nothing to do with it,’ I said, winking at the mother of my child. Nicole, his birth mom, responded with her trademark wisdom. ‘I’ll take credit for his good looks,’ she whispered. ‘You can take credit for his smile.’”
‘Are you competing with the Duggars?’ Our agreed upon 1 child led us to having 9 kids.’: Mom of 9 jokes she and husband would have ‘run from each other’ if they knew what future would hold
“Our son begged for ‘just one brother.’ Then we met Debbie. She was advocating for a boy with Down syndrome, to find him a forever home. I listened politely, thinking the entire time, ‘Nope, we’re full.’ Soon, we had 7 kids. I had my first-ever surprise pregnancy. I could hear the judgmental comments. ‘Do you know what causes this?’ ‘Boy, aren’t your hands full already?’”
‘So, do you just not want kids?’ I’d lie, tell them we weren’t ready. No one wants to hear their nurse say, ‘We can’t have babies.’: Woman embarks on foster care journey, turns ‘party of 3’ to a ‘party of 6’
“When others see us, they start looking around, panicked, for my children’s parents. We would have to say time and time again that they’re ours. They ask my daughter, ‘Are those REALLY your brothers and sisters?’ They’ll ask how much I paid for them, where they came from, which I think are odd questions to ask someone.”
‘Did she want another woman in her life? I waited to meet my stepdaughter for the very first time. My heart pounded as she stepped in the car.’ Woman explains there’s ‘nothing natural about a blended family’
“Trying on my wedding dress, I sensed tension with my boyfriend’s daughter. My mind raced, and I pulled her aside. ‘I’m not trying to replace your mom.’ I never expected to start a family like this.”
‘My pregnancy crushed my stepkids. The mom and dad they’d known were gone, and now we were bringing a baby into their lives.’ Mom feels ‘remorse’ for bringing child into ‘complicated’ home
“I mourned that my daughter couldn’t be welcomed into the world with joyful innocence. She’d be born into a life of sharing Christmases and summer vacations. A life where daddy couldn’t tell mommy she was his first and only wife. I had to bury the dreams of what I THOUGHT motherhood looked like.”
‘Why do my kids not want to talk to me?’ My mom replied, ‘You don’t have anything to do with them, why would they?’ 18-year-old adopted by uncle’s best friend, the ‘most selfless’ man she knows
“I met my adoptive dad while my bio dad and mom were still together. He was my uncle’s best friend. At 18, I made a board that asked, ‘Will you adopt me?’ He hugged me and cried. ‘Let’s get the paperwork started,’ he said without hesitation.”
‘You can have kids. Why adopt a BROWN baby? Look at that pretty blonde baby you made!’: Mom proud of her ‘beautiful biracial family’ despite hate and ‘constant stares’
“My siblings have brown curly hair, big brown eyes, and cocoa-colored skin. I have blonde hair, light skin, and blue eyes. We could not look more different from one another. But they have been my family since the moment I was born. I don’t know anything different.”
