“I left the courtroom that day and did not see him for 9 months. He never showed up at the court ordered pick up. He never called. He had disappeared.”
‘He said, ‘If I die. Nathan is the only person allowed to raise my daughter.’ What I didn’t know was how serious he took that statement.’
‘Katie, get off the couch!,’ was the last thing I heard before witnessing the shattering sound of the gun.’
“I’ll never forget looking down at my trembling hands as if I was a character in a war movie. Except, this wasn’t fictional. This was real and raw and urgent; no life experience could have prepared me for the intensity of what I was to see, hear, feel, and ache over.”
‘Are you sure you want to marry her? She comes from a broken home. Her parents are divorced.’
“My heart sank into my stomach as I read those words. They were written in a letter addressed to my soon to be husband.”
‘I had no one to call. This was a pain even greater than getting shot. Yes, you read right. Right in the in the head with a .45 bullet. WORSE THAN THAT.’
“I’ll never forget looking down at my trembling hands. The blood was warm like bath water as it flooded my fingers. I could faintly hear my friends repeating, ‘Stay with us, stay with us.’”
‘I was young when I met my husband. Much younger than I should have been, given his older age. His steady job, quiet apartment, and vows of unconditional love lured me in.’
“I heard him say the words, ‘I’m going to get you out of this.’ I don’t know why I believed him, but I showed up to his office the very next week. My life has never been the same since.”
‘He told me he didn’t feel attached to our baby, and he didn’t love me anymore. I secretly hoped I would die in childbirth. My life as I knew it, was completely dismantled.’
“I decided to clean out her bedroom. It was a virtual cesspool. As I was clearing away the reminders of her unwell state, I found her suicide note.”
‘We found out we were pregnant at 17. We were scared. Soon after, we were having a second. I am so grateful for my ex. I never thought I would say those words. But here I am. So grateful for my ex.’
“We had the ‘million dollar’ family. A boy, a girl, and two high school sweethearts who got married and made it through teen pregnancy. But then, we started to lose the ‘spark.'”
‘My world was spinning. How is this possible? He didn’t realize it at the time. His heart was a ticking time bomb.’
“He hadn’t been feeling well. First a case of the flu, then what we thought was walking pneumonia. He ate well, worked out, quit smoking. What had he done wrong to deserve this? Little did we know, the journey was about to begin.”
‘And what does mom want this year?’ Crying, I quietly answered, ‘A New Life?’ Santa hugged me and whispered in my ear, ‘I’ll see what I can do.’
“Shockingly, when asked what he wanted he said, ‘I don’t know. I have everything I need.’ WOW. What 3 year old doesn’t have a list a mile long?”
‘I spent nearly 12 years with a man I never should’ve married. He never touched me. We fought about my weight. I was immune to anything but pain. And then I met Adam.’
“He works midnights. He came home at 8 a.m. I woke to see him singing our baby to sleep with county music.”
