“Little by little, I was completely reeled in, under the impression I was speaking to a 16-year-old girl with a traumatic childhood. The next morning she called me names and said, ‘This isn’t going to work. I’m finding someone else.’ I was completely devastated. ‘What the hell just happened?’ This person doesn’t ask for money. They don’t ask for material possessions. She literally just wants to destroy you.”
‘I’m sorry for what I did to you. I had the baby. Come and get her. She’s yours.’ I was scammed not once, but TWICE.’: After battling infertility, couple face ‘humiliating’ adoption scam
‘I want to live in my parents’ basement with 13 kids and no husband,’ said 3-year-old me. One part is true. Babies, and lots of ‘em!’: Woman shares emotional battle with Endometriosis, knows she’ll someday ‘be a mama’
“I dreamt of the day I’d turn in my baby dolls for the real deal. Fast forward 23 years, and here I am. Married to the man of my dreams. Our home is full, but our arms empty. We wanted the big family, sleepless nights, poopy diapers. We wanted it. So, we tried. And tried. After 6 months of negative tests, I knew something was off. They found 2 masses on my ovaries the size of a lemon and a golf ball.”
‘There’s no way to cure it. The pain can be crippling. It can also cause infertility.’: Woman suffering severe endometriosis undergoes 10 surgeries, says ‘no wonder I had that miscarriage last year’
“‘Does the pain shoot down the back of your legs?,’ my friend asked. ‘Yes. It feels like knives carving me out from the inside. But my doctor doesn’t believe it’s worse than typical period cramps.’ I made an appointment with what felt like my millionth doctor. Narcotics didn’t work, CBD didn’t work, ibuprofen didn’t touch it. I have kids and work and life to live, I can’t be laying down all day every day. I didn’t want to allow the pain of endometriosis to make me a bitter person.”
‘But how will they function in the REAL world?!’ People judge us for homeschooling our kids. Truth is, they already are.’: Mom places children in homeschool after relentless bullying, claims they went from ‘depressed shells of humans’ to ‘thriving’
“After a long year of our kids feeling burnt out, bullied, and unsupported at their private school, we made the difficult choice to bring them home. I wish I could say it was an easy transition or that it immediately felt like the right choice. If I’m being honest, it felt like the only choice. They struggled to go to school each day and their passion for learning dwindled. We knew we had to act fast. So, we dove right in, grieving the life we were leaving behind.”
‘I was vomiting. My doctor said it was because I was ‘promiscuous’. Others said it was from grief, after my mom hung herself.’: Woman with chronic illness says pain ‘robbed her of so much,’ but won’t rob her ‘passion for living’
“The pain got so bad. I pulled over on the side of the freeway and called my dad, begging him to come get me. I became confused, disoriented. I remember thinking I could understand why my mother took her own life. It made me realize I either had to fight for my own health, or continue to fade away. I had to be stronger than my mom was. I couldn’t stop fighting.”
‘I got my period every other week, 7 days straight. I had bruises up and down my legs. I thought it was part of ‘being a woman.’: Woman diagnosed with Endometriosis after years of ‘normal’ symptoms, urges us to ‘fight for answers’
“Inexplicable things started happening. I looked pregnant. Everyone poked fun at me napping every day. I sat in the parking lot of my doctor’s office with yet another pamphlet for painful periods. Every ounce of me wanted to run back and tell him to figure it out! Instead, I put my car in reverse and drove away in tears. Silenced, once again. I was absolutely losing my mind.”
‘I adopted a deployed soldier. I knew he’d be my husband. People thought we were nuts.’: 10 months after ‘random selection’ pairing online, couple says ‘I do’ after emotional military homecoming
“I signed up through a website where you ‘adopt’ someone who is deployed. I figured, ‘Why not help someone serving their country?’ We exchanged a few emails. Just small talk. As the days got closer to meeting him in person, I got nervous. I was hours away from meeting my potential husband. My heart just knew.”
‘The subject line read, ‘Down Syndrome Baby.’ My heart skipped a beat. That very morning a precious baby boy was born.’: Cancer survivor adopts ‘special gift’ son with Down syndrome after infertility from endometriosis
“When they had learned he was diagnosed with Down syndrome, they did not feel comfortable. I responded with, ‘Yes, yes, and yes!’ My lunch sat uneaten on the counter. I told my son, ‘You are going to be a big brother!’ With the biggest smile on his face, he shouted, ‘Yahoo this is the best day EVER!’”
‘Daniel may have trouble fathering children. He had a botched surgery when he was very young. As 18-year-olds, we didn’t grasp the seriousness of his male infertility. Then I realized something was wrong with me, too.’
“My husband’s counts had dropped to almost nothing. Six live sperm were found. Six! No six thousand. Just six. We got a letter in the mail. The yearly fee to keep his sperm frozen was due. It was hundreds of dollars. We had to make a decision about our future– right now. At 26 years old, I VOLUNTARILY had a hysterectomy. Then, we got the call.”
‘She said, ‘That’s them. That’s my son’s parents. That’s who I’ve been looking for.’ And then, I told her you were pregnant.’
“Her entire demeanor changed. The pause felt like an eternity. There could be two ends to this. My hand flew to my mouth as a gasp of air escaped and a sob caught in my throat. Stunned.”
