“‘A lot has happened over the weekend. The birth mom had her baby on Friday night,’ the caseworker said. ‘Do you still want to go through with the adoption since he was born premature?’ That question absolutely baffled me. This baby boy was being placed in the foster care system.”
‘I’m sorry. The adoption is over.’ He was being placed in foster care. I had this feeling, this wasn’t the end.’: Couple hikes the globe with kids after nearly failed adoption of ‘beautiful little boy’
‘I found myself gasping for air. It did not matter how much I tried to breathe in, it felt as if nothing was going inside my lungs. A few days later I developed a bit of a cough. I could have died while on the mountain.’
“It took nearly 2 days before a helicopter arrived. 2 days of freaking out in subzero temperatures. I spent the entire time in a room where various people would pop their head in to make sure I was still alive.”
‘The tree crushed the roof of the car. My head compressed. My spine burst. I don’t remember it. I woke up thinking it was a nightmare. ‘There’s no way I could still be alive,’ I told myself.’
“Life has changed. The depth of loss I face daily. But everyday I am faced with a choice. Will I choose to survive today or will I choose to thrive? No matter the lemons or curveballs, the choice is mine.”
‘My brother started paying extra attention to me. I didn’t think much of it until he began coming into my room at night. He took every chance he got to touch to me.’ Assault survivor shares heartbreaking journey to peace
“It began out of nowhere. I was frozen, unsure of what was happening. He told me not to tell. I knew something wasn’t right but he was my older brother, so I did what he said. Until one day, we heard my uncle’s car pull into the driveway. As he quickly opened the quickly, my brother rushed to get off of me. ‘What’s going on?!’ My stomach was in knots.”
‘I came down for breakfast and Bill was busy writing. He told me he was jotting down notes for his memorial service. What? What do you mean ‘memorial service?’ I never made it to the office that day.’
“Just as I was starting to feel some tiny relief from losing my dad, Bill started coughing again. We both knew what the cough was from.”
‘I’m a teacher dreading this question when school starts. You want to know how my summer really was? It was awful.’
“I was an emotional, hormonal mess who was pregnant, but won’t be having a baby anytime soon.”
‘I’m going to miss him, but I’m glad he’s feeling better.’ This butterfly would make it to the top of the hill if it was the last thing he did.
“‘Butterflies fly mom. This butterfly can’t do that,’ was his obvious statement to me, asking him not to do what I inherently knew what was coming…”
‘My pregnancy was real. Really brief. Really scary. Really exciting. Really hopeful. Really exhausting.’
“I know for some struggling to conceive, seeing others pregnant can be triggering. For me, being pregnant was triggering.”
‘She kept saying: Come on Ms. Helma! You can do it!’ Teacher CARRIES student with cerebral palsy on her back during class hike on camping trip
“She was encouraging me! Giving me little neck massages when she saw I was struggling. She made up songs for us to sing. She sang a song when I was really sweating.”
‘I’ve never kissed a girl on the lips’: Why this couple WAITED to share their first kiss
“I really wanted the woman I was going to marry to be the only woman I had ever kissed.”
