“‘You’re lucky you CAN’T have kids,’ a stressed out mother once told me. I was floored. I held my son for hours crying tears of joy. I remember telling my husband, ‘It’s all over. I feel like I can breathe again. This weight I carried for years has been lifted.’”
‘This is it.’ I took a deep breath, answered the phone, my heart racing. ‘She is heading to the hospital in labor now.’ We couldn’t believe it, OUR SON. That is what SHE called him.’
‘Oh my Gosh, she’s a baby. ‘I’m saying yes,’ I typed to him in Afghanistan. ‘Say yes,’ he responded simultaneously. ‘We’ll take her!’ I nearly shouted into the phone.’
“‘Dad has to move to Colorado,’ I told our sons. ‘He doesn’t have a choice’ ‘We’re not leaving her, right?,’ Aidan interrupted, his tone laced with terror. ‘We can’t just leave her!’ His voice was sandpaper rough, speaking the words I couldn’t. ‘We…we might have to make a tough decision.’ ‘I know,’ I whispered.”
‘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.”
‘Behind closed doors, I was called ‘crazy’ and ‘too sensitive.’ We lived like roommates that slept together. I tried leaving. He promised to change, and he did, until I got pregnant again.’
“Into my life walks a man I knew since he got sober 4 years earlier. He and his girlfriend had recently broken up. I know my kids are watching us. Our children are always watching.”
‘It was love at first sight. 3 days later, we were engaged. His symptoms of PTSD began to show. I would wear makeup to cover the bruises on my cheek.’
“His grandmother grabbed me and said, ‘You marry that boy. You don’t worry about anything anyone else has to say. They will get over it. Make him happy.’”
‘Oh God. I am about to puke.’ All of a sudden, I see a white van and someone whispers, ‘There he is.’
“I couldn’t wait any longer so I drove myself to the hospital. They told me there was nothing they could do to stop this baby from coming today. Alex was set to leave for deployment in 17 days.”
‘I told him to STOP right where he was because we were about to have the baby. He was walking to board the plane.’
“He sat down against the wall right beside the boarding line. People passed by him boarding the plane as he sat there in tears of amazement – his baby girl was making her debut into the world.”
‘I had my first alcoholic drink at the age of 10. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2015. I drank to calm my nerves. The drinking kept escalating.’
“I returned to the States. I started drinking even more. My marriage was falling apart. When I woke up from the coma, I was still hallucinating. The VA had no inpatient treatment facility spot open for me.”
‘We eloped on August 31, 2018, after dating just 40 days. She is my wife from another life and now that I have her, I am complete.’
“I joined the Marine Corps and after September 11, 2001, I knew I made the right choice. I saw my wife for the first time in 2005 – it was love at first sight. But life had different plans for us. If photos speak 1,000 words, this one speaks 10,000.”
As the bus was pulling up you could hear the ‘DADDY’ screams from her little mouth. She was jumping up and down, pointing, ‘Daddy get off the bus!’
“She suddenly lets go of my hand and starts running. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a smile from my husband like when he finally got his little girls in his arms after 175 days away.”