“‘She’s fallen asleep. Should I carry her to bed?’ Lunchtime. My phone pings again. ‘She’s woken up. What should I give her for lunch?’ I tell him she likes the pre-made pouches of baby food in the cupboard. Another text. ‘I can’t find the pouches.’ I can’t wait for Daddy to realize that staying at home isn’t all about box sets and playtime.”
‘What the heck is going on? Have we been robbed?!’ I walk through an ocean of toys and books. My husband and baby are hidden among thrown sofa cushions. Sheer panic sets in.’
‘I received a message that stopped me in my tracks and brought me to tears. Big, waterfall, sobbing tears. Scarlett would never want this for me. She was love and joy personified.’
“Hello, we were gifted a gift card in memory of Scarlett. I came across your family’s story. The date matches what the man mentioned. I was very stressed, adding numbers in my head trying to get my daughter what she needed for school when this happened. I sat in my car afterwards and cried.”
‘I kept my pregnancy a secret. I knew coming home from the war would be tough, but I expected him to be a better father. He started drinking and blaming me.’
“I was working full time, coming home to a 2-year-old, while his dad played video games. My initial thought was ‘How??’ I saved the test to show their father. But that never happened. So I sent him a message. Straight to the point. ‘I’m pregnant.’ He packed all of his stuff, and was just gone.”
‘There was a catch. This boy was technically a man. At 20-years-old, our sexual relationship was illegal. After hiding our meetups, I came home to find a police officer on my couch.’
“My first true love went to jail, and I became a small-town girl with an over-sexualized reputation. Teachers hit on me. Dads from the daycare I worked at stalked me. I was ridiculed, taunted, labeled easy. Enter more boys.”
‘I picked him up from daycare. His little legs had bruises all over them between his knees and ankles. He was only 4 months old, so he wasn’t crawling yet. There was no obvious explanation.’
“My husband inquired about the bruising. He was told that, ‘babies just bruise easily,’ and the bump was just a birthmark. Our minds were filled with fear and uncertainty and our stomachs were in knots. Feelings of anger crept up inside of me.”
‘I was still in the stirrups, getting stitched up, talking to my OB. ‘I never have to do this again.’ I rejoiced. Until one day.’
“She had no idea how much I had been counting down to this milestone. The last birth of our last baby. I had a ‘geriatric uterus’ this pregnancy, being 35. I’m tired and these kids are expensive!”
‘I boarded a plane in the early hours of the morning with nothing more than my 6-month-old and a duffel bag’ Mom documents beautiful and enduring autism journey
“While many people don’t see why his autism or other special needs have anything to do with this shoot, I think many will. This is him in his element.”
You know the new mom at work? (Insert eye roll) The one that is leaving early because day care has called… again.
Don’t judge.
