“We lived off ramen noodles and ham sandwiches. We slept in forty-five minute increments. ‘I miss us,’ he said. The spark of our honeymoon years quickly faded, and life together felt more like survival.”
‘I love you, and I’m home.’ He wrapped me in a warm embrace. We had a fairy tale image of what our life would be. The next year was a whirlwind of emotions.’
‘When the stylist asked me what I wanted, I replied ‘Cut it off! Please just cut it off before I lose my nerve.’ Without hesitation, she grabbed the scissors and began to chop.’
“I found myself staring at the reflection of a woman I hardly recognized. Her hair an unkempt mess. Eyes dark and tired. Skin dull and sullen. She looked like she had given up on herself, and in a way, she had.”
‘SAY IT RIGHT NOW – Say the nice stuff, the uplifting stuff, the encouraging stuff, the emotional stuff. Pick up the phone. Start texting. Drive to their house.’
“I was filled with so much regret afterwards that I’d waited until after he was gone. Why do we wait? Why do we have such a hard time telling people what they mean to us?”
‘He screamed horrible things at me, broke my wall mirror, cornered me and told me he’d murder my family if I left him as he shook a butcher knife in my face.’
“I realized I couldn’t remember when I last had a period. I took a pregnancy test when I got home. It was positive. I was pregnant. I was freaking out.”
‘Dear NICU Mom, I see you. This moment isn’t at all how you envisioned, but you are determined to embrace it anyway.’
“I see you carefully wash your hands before you lean over that tiny plastic crib to touch your baby’s face. I see you with a special heirloom dress and milestone blocks commemorating her first month of life.”
‘His greatest struggle is what others think of him’: Foster mom on getting her ‘trauma-triggered’ children back to school
“I watched as he spent several minutes deciding where to sit in his new classroom. We are working to help him feel confident. This kid has a heart bigger than the moon.”
‘At over 300 pounds, I was heading down a road of disease and disorders. I didn’t need to go under the knife. I needed to get under the bar.’
“I was very aware of what it took to live a healthy life. I simply lacked the wherewithal to implement it.”
‘I’m the Veteran, not the Veteran’s wife’: Master Chief Petty Officer retires as senior enlisted woman in the Navy, wants others to know ‘we already are equal’
“Women don’t ask to be equal, we already are equal. Women simply want others to acknowledge that equality.”
‘I was fed up’: Mom loses jaw-dropping 205 pounds for her ‘beautiful rainbow baby’
“I was miserable and I knew I couldn’t allow that to continue. Change needed to happen, and I made it happen! I knew I had to do this for me, and my entire future.”