“We were looking into adoption. It was dicey. Their mom was doing JUST enough to make it seem like she was on track to get them home, but barely. And then we got the news. We didn’t think much of the warning signs.”
‘Their mom unexpectedly passed. My heart hurt for them, but inside I was glad she wouldn’t fight us for them anymore.’ Family fosters 2 teens who they ‘loved instantly’ despite troubled past
‘Did I love you enough today?,’ I wondered as I drove you to school through tears of frustration.. I catch a glimpse of you staring at me in the rear view.’
“I want to rewind the day and tell you how good you did. I will ALWAYS be here. Rooting for you. Lifting you up. You are, and always will be, the greatest thing I have ever done.”
‘Mom, can I go to his wake? I want to say thank you to him for his kindness. He made me feel like I belong.’
“‘Mom, Ryan was not at school again today,’ he said to me. ‘Why is Ryan not coming to afterschool activities?’ I explained he was fighting cancer, and was sometimes in the hospital for treatment. He spent so much time in the hospital, he didn’t get to be a kid. I told my son, ‘Do something about it.'”
‘My mother gave birth to me while escaping a civil war. I spent the first 7 years of my life in a refugee camp. Today, I became the FIRST person to graduate college in my family.’
“My parents sacrificed so much for their kids. They moved to the USA with $0. Even if I gave them the whole world, it would never be enough to repay them. I hope to continue making them proud.”
‘He proposed. ‘You’ll NEVER find a man as good as me.’ I was ecstatic and terrified. Finally, we will be married and everything will be perfect. I was lucky to have him, because HE would still love me.’
“My hair started falling out. The scariest part was that from the outside, our relationship looked perfect. We were a good-looking couple. Young and vibrant. We had a wonderful social circle and took luxurious vacations. No one knew, including me.”
‘I was 13 hours away with $1.32 in my account. Tears in my eyes, I gently opened the door. There was a look of shock on her face. ‘How did you get here?!’
“I wrote, ‘My mom is dying in hospice care and I feel guilty every day I’m not there sitting by her side.’ I awoke to something so unexpected. ‘Alex! Oh my god, Alex!’”
‘I woke up with the worst pain. ‘They’re just headaches,’ I said. Something in my mom’s heart kept pushing. ‘There’s something in your brain,’ the doctor said. I was 11, and so confused.’
“I was rushed to the PICU. I tried to stay calm, but I was terrified. I couldn’t help but think, ‘How could I have done anything wrong to deserve this?’ I hid everything behind a smile, but I knew my life would never be ‘normal’ again.”
‘Before the wedding, I edited our father daughter track. He didn’t know this version was going to be different. Surprised, his head dropped on my shoulder. Tears rolled down both our faces.’
“I knew I wanted to surprise him at my wedding. As I wiped my dad’s tears away from his immovable smile, I looked over his shoulder as my new husband gently wrapped his arms around my mom. This was truly the sweetest moment of my life.”
‘An older man said to my sister, ‘Let me get a taste of that.’ He was sticking his tongue out and wiggling it. She instantly turned red. She was 12. He laughed and I did, too. I don’t know why, but I did.’
“This is what it REALLY means to be a man. It’s kissing my wife’s stomach and telling her she’s beautiful, even with her c-section scar and stretch marks. It’s telling my daughter ‘Honey, OWN that Jersey’ when she comes home from school crying after a boy told her to take it off because girls ‘don’t play’ sports.”
‘I tiptoed into my daughter’s room to play tooth fairy. I saw a note from her big sister. ‘Why do fairy’s not show themselves? Could you please take a selfie? My iPad is in the room. Swipe right!’
“She hijacked our little one’s fairy visit, asking for proof. I couldn’t stop laughing. My husband and I talked about me putting on a wig, wings, and adding a bright light behind me to actually take a selfie, but that just made the lie even worse. I went with a letter because a note from Tabitha the Tooth Fairy totally isn’t lying.”
