“I hid my pregnancy for 7 months. I should’ve been picking the perfect dress for Winter Ball. Instead, I was writing a birth plan. Once my sobs slowed, I looked at her birth father and said, ‘Those are the people who will raise our baby girl.’ I wavered. I fought. I broke. But in the end, I knew what I needed to do.”
‘The nurse came in and said, ‘Her new parents are ready for her.’ Only 15, I kissed her soft baby cheek, and placed her into the arms of her mama.’: Teen mom embarks on ‘beautiful’ open adoption journey, ‘I couldn’t have picked better parents’
‘CPS swooped in and out. I am now mother to both victims. We are going to fight for them.’: Family adopts 2 children, ‘We’re standing up for our kids’
“We had been so careful. We had all the right rules in place. But he’d been taught too well. Steve, a child trapped in a man’s body, was just as much a victim.”
‘I jostled awake to the sensation of the couch moving. ‘PLEASE!!’ His eyes rolled back. I watched as Kenny’s body flailed uncontrollably.’: Woman finds love after losing husband to cancer
“My sobbing husband pulled me close and choked out, ‘Don’t EVER let me be a vegetable. Do you hear me???’ The weight of his words shattered my shock. My face crumbled. ‘It’s recommended you never procreate again.’ We’d accidentally gotten pregnant the last month it would ever be possible.”
‘Your to-do list will keep growing. The emails will continue to flood in. The texts will sit unanswered.’: Mom urges ‘everything else can wait, you only get one chance to raise your kids’
“But your children, they grow right before your eyes. Their tiny voices change overnight. Their giggles and tears start and end with you…until they don’t. Everything else can wait. Parenting is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
‘Dear husband—I love you, but I don’t like you. Not all the time.’: Woman pens appreciation letter to husband, ‘I love you even in those I-don’t-like-you moments’
“I just hope you know how grateful I am for you even when I’m tired, worn down, and I don’t show it. Most of all, I hope you know I love you big even in those I-don’t-like-you moments.”
‘We’re working like our kids aren’t there, parenting like we don’t work. I knew giving birth was hard, but this is so much harder.’: Mom says ‘we make the impossible happen’
“I am not a working mom or a stay-at-home mom. I am both. Somehow, someway, us moms always make the impossible happen.”
‘My mom called. ‘Your father didn’t come home last night.’ He always comes home. There was a truck lying in someone’s fence.’: Woman starts small business with help from late father’s support
“I took on 3 different jobs to pay tuition. My dad said, ‘Remember to always believe in yourself and you can accomplish it.’ Coming home from work, my husband was hit by a car on the freeway. I was unknowingly 8 weeks pregnant. We knew there was more we needed to accomplish together; our life did not end there.”
‘Your dad and I, we didn’t work out. We failed to keep us all under one roof. We tried, but I am so sorry.’: Single special needs mom says ‘I hope I can be what you need’
“My boy, you looked so young tonight. So small, so little, and so baby-like. I couldn’t help but worry about how you will feel—how you will cope—when you aren’t so young. I hope I am enough. I hope I can be what you need.”
‘My mommy has a sick boobie.’ The technician looked confused. I was mortified. ‘You don’t have to pay.’: Mom diagnosed with cancer during pandemic thanks community for acts of ‘kindness’
“‘I just want to be here for my boys.’ At barely 30 years old, I was diagnosed in the middle of a pandemic. We immediately started receiving packages in the mail.”
‘She was a homeless, single teen mom who aged out of foster care. She had 6 kids and was the same age as me! My heart broke.’: Single woman fosters 36 kids, adopts 2 children into ‘forever family’
“I made sure the case worker knew I spoke Spanish. I wanted him to have a familiar culture and language. ‘We have a baby boy at the hospital who is ready to be discharged. He is Hispanic. Are you willing to take him?’ This was the moment these 25 years and Spanish classes had prepared me for! I walked into the hospital with an empty stroller, and came out with a forever son.”
