“Three months after my love proposed to me, I found a lump. I was told I was ‘lucky’ because I had the ‘good kind’ of cancer. It was a hugely insensitive thing to say. My friends were buying homes, getting promotions, having children – and I’m the ‘lucky’ one?”
‘She could not have been more perfect. When she died unexpectedly 2 months later, I thought my heart stopped with hers.’
‘This is it.’ I took a deep breath, answered the phone, my heart racing. ‘She is heading to the hospital in labor now.’ We couldn’t believe it, OUR SON. That is what SHE called him.’
“‘You’re lucky you CAN’T have kids,’ a stressed out mother once told me. I was floored. I held my son for hours crying tears of joy. I remember telling my husband, ‘It’s all over. I feel like I can breathe again. This weight I carried for years has been lifted.’”
‘My husband called. I knew something was up. ‘She delivered a baby last night.’ I shook. I cried. He wouldn’t be the only brown face in our family.’
“A week later I received an email. I thought, ‘Leave me alone! I have a brand new baby I wasn’t expecting! Just give me a chance!’ When I clicked on the email, it wasn’t them reminding me to do my update. It was their birth mother.”
‘I thought you would like to meet your children,’ the nurse said with a smile. She handed me a stack of pictures, my first glimpse of my tiny premature babies.’
“I met my son for the first time, thanks to this picture. A picture that was taken by our nurse. She walked in, making the trek from a different building and several floors away. She knew I was too weak to visit the NICU, and hoped seeing my children would help me heal.”
‘It was a miracle. I was in my 40s! I completely doubted my chances of getting pregnant. We found out it was triplets. We couldn’t believe it.’
“We decided to try for children on our own ONE final time. They gave me the choice to terminate one of my babies, or risk losing the twins. But we felt we were given a third baby for a reason, so we decided to take our chances.”
‘The ER doctor came in. ‘This is normal. It’s what happens when you are pregnant. It’s called morning sickness.’ I felt so stupid for coming, but I KNEW it was more than that.’
“I had to leave work early, or run to the bathroom throwing up so much I felt like passing out. Friends would say, ’But you sit at a desk for work, it should be easy for you.’ ‘You can’t complain. You should have just gotten your tubes tied a long time ago.'”
‘Thank you for making me a Mommy,’ I whispered. We held each other and cried. We are BOTH her mom. I knew the connection was real. There’s no one else I’d rather do this with.’
“I have no idea how we ended up married. Being friends for years first, I knew about his cancer diagnosis, and the treatment that left him infertile. She called us. I was so nervous. But when I heard her voice, I just knew.”
‘You have a 2% chance.’ My husband and I sat on the exam table, crying uncontrollably. I believed I wasn’t good enough to be a mother. I was bitter. ‘WHY is everyone else getting pregnant?’
“Our world crumbled beneath us. ‘Why is my body not working?’ I thought I didn’t deserve to have a baby or experience motherhood. I didn’t know when or how, but I still had faith it would happen. I felt it deep within my soul.”
‘They are ours forever,’ I told my husband as tears ran down my face. ‘We have twins. They’ve been moved due to limited beds.’ I read that text a million times. Our day had finally come.’
“I told my student I had to talk to his dad about his behavior. He turned around. ‘He is not my dad, he is my case worker. I don’t have a mom or dad. I am in foster care.’ I was shocked and speechless. I wanted to wrap my arms around him. During dinner, I had a conversation with my husband.”
‘We felt left out of the parents’ club. It was comical how easily everybody else could have a baby. You’d look around the zoo, the grocery store, the mall. EVERY.SINGLE. PERSON has 1, 2, 3 kids.’
“You are living a cruel joke. Our insurance covered nothing! The financial aspects were flat out ridiculous and unfair. You literally throw thousands of dollars down the toilet with every unsuccessful attempt.”