“We got a 3D ultrasound to find out the sex. It’s a GIRL! I bought hair bows and tutus. We were beyond excited. She was born perfect and healthy. No one knew she was hiding a secret illness. After realizing our sick child has two mommies, she couldn’t donate.”
‘I was going to donate to her fund, but I found out her parents are lesbian. Sorry.’ My wife received this horrible message. We were so hurt.’
‘The rumor mill was going full swing. I was a 14-year-old girl anxious to yell my lungs out and spend as much time with the football players as possible.’
“I’m sure somewhere in my teenage heart I was thinking… game on. Then things went from bad to worse . I promptly did what any teenage girl would do… burst into inconsolable sobs by my locker in the hallway of our high school.”
‘Why the hell would you take a photo of me at that angle?,’ I said after I saw this photo in my husband’s phone. I became so self-conscious.’
“I once had a girl tell me that my dress would look better if I had some Spanx on – I had a cesarean 3 three months prior to that. I loved the way I looked in that dress.”
‘What are you having this time?’ I replied, ‘It’s a girl.’ An excited squeal came out of her mouth. ‘Finally a girl, you must be SO happy.’ I cringed.’
“My two boys were there when that woman stopped me. They are always there when someone makes a remark on how my life is somehow saved and better because I ‘finally have a girl.’ They are constantly reminded they aren’t girls.”
‘I remember this guy said I had a ‘tight rig.’ I never ate much, I glorified my thinness. I was valued. I was funny, I felt pretty.’
“I met a guy, we fell in love and wanted babies. 3 kids, 2 vaginals, 1 cesarean, postpartum depression, antidepressant weight gain, and life later, this is my rig. I hated it. I would say it was broken. It’s not the person I valued anymore.”
‘Loving the girl who lost her father. This role isn’t for the faint of heart.’
“You adore a woman who will forever be a little girl who lost her daddy. The very first man who loved her is no longer hers to have.”
‘My husband used to come home to find the girl on the right. A little rouge, a pretty top, a sexy bra. This girl on the right was sassy. This girl on the right was F-U-N.’
“She wanted you to come home to girl on the right. But no bueno. That crap, it didn’t fly.”
‘My daughter is my best friend, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.’
“I’m well aware that many parenting experts and the majority of the general public think it not wise to be your child’s friend. ‘You are their parent, not their friend,’ they say. What do I tell them? Nothing, because I don’t need them to approve of my parenting decisions.”
‘They told me, ‘She’s shy.’ Out of curiosity, I asked them about her face. They told me it was a birthmark, and that she gets picked on about it a lot.’
“After their ride I walked them back over to their grandparent’s car. I said to the little girl, ‘How come you didn’t want to go for a ride?’ She said, ‘Well, the boys always say that stuff is just for boys, not for girls.'”
‘I wonder why I wasn’t invited. I wonder why I wasn’t included. I walk up to people and get that sinking feeling they were just talking about me.’
“And then I remember this one beautiful truth: I’m not her anymore.”
