“We decided to try for children on our own ONE final time. They gave me the choice to terminate one of my babies, or risk losing the twins. But we felt we were given a third baby for a reason, so we decided to take our chances.”
‘It was a miracle. I was in my 40s! I completely doubted my chances of getting pregnant. We found out it was triplets. We couldn’t believe it.’
Boy grows hair to donate to kids in need: ‘What are you doing in the boy’s bathroom? You look like a GIRL!’ One parent asked, ‘Is that a boy? That is such irresponsible parenting!’ His hair was long and angelic. I never understood.’
“No matter what he wore, he was mistaken as a girl by strangers. Even in his Spider Man costume, someone said, ‘Oh she’s so cute!’ I got used to correcting people. One day, I was called into the principal’s office.”
‘I made my way to the sports aisle and hurried to lift my top. ‘How dare you expose yourself to my husband like that,’ a woman snarled. ‘You should be ashamed of yourself!’
“One mom said, ‘Do you think she knows who the father is? I mean, look at how nonchalantly she is walking about with her breast out. That says a lot about her morals.’ Mortified, I left the store, leaving everything I had in the cart. I remember thinking, ‘Did I do something wrong?’”
‘Momma, why can’t I walk like my friends?’ His legs were sticking straight up in the air, unable to bend. A lady in Walmart was staring long and hard.’
“His 6-year-old brother stepped in. He said, ‘What’s wrong? Haven’t you ever seen a kid in a wheelchair?’ I’ve lost count of the number of times a parent has told their children, ‘Stay away from that child!'”
‘I was pregnant with a little boy and a little girl after a decade of trauma. I limped out of his house and drove home over 100 miles away with $20 in my pocket.’
“A handsome former-classmate wrote me on Facebook: ‘I had a dream about you.’ I was thirty four weeks pregnant when my water spontaneously broke and suddenly the pain and trauma resurfaced. Were my babies okay?”
‘I got with my boyfriend in July. By November, I was pregnant. We had been ‘irresponsible.’ We dealt with it. I convinced myself I’d killed my baby. I couldn’t look at my daughter without crying.’
“The thing is, I also got pregnant many years before at age 24. It was the first time I’d had unprotected sex, and I had split up with the father. Having a termination was my only option. This has hugely troubled me the past 3 years, but I’m not ashamed to talk about it.”
‘We were literally one in a million. Identical twins with Down syndrome happens once out of every million pregnancies! We had been chosen for this task.’
“The ultrasound technician laughed. ‘What is it?,’ we said. She looked at us. ‘There are two in there!’ I immediately cracked up laughing. Rayni looked like she had seen a ghost! ‘Are you serious?’”
‘She couldn’t stop looking over to where her brother would have been, had he survived. I couldn’t help but feel he was lying there, letting her know he was present, and will always be with her.’
“‘You’re having a boy AND a girl!’ I thought to myself, ‘One of each. How perfect!’ When I arrived and saw what she had set up, I lost it. I knew I had to honor James somehow. She smiled countless times in his direction.”
‘There’s NO WAY I’m pregnant!’ In my mind, having a baby would save my marriage and fix EVERYTHING. I silently made an appointment with my OBGYN.’
“All alone in the bathroom at work, I felt my life was over. I was a failure. I couldn’t make my marriage work. I couldn’t carry a baby. Tie my tubes or just take everything out.”
‘I’ll forever remember that moment. The doctor told me to get my camera out and take a picture. And then everything became quiet. The world stopped, right before chaos erupted.’
“Doctors had never seen anything like it. Harper was encased in a hard, thick skin, much like armor, all over her body. It was like we were sleeping walking. We needed to do something quickly.”