“A text comes to me about 11:24. It reads, ‘Are you at work? Can you call me?’ Abigail’s mother no longer wanted to be around me. I was a reminder of our trauma. It was devastating because now I feel completely erased from her life as if nothing ever happened. I constantly dream of the family that almost was.”
‘Today is the day I get to meet Abigail!’ I’m excited! Her tone is bleak, she begins to cry. ‘Abigail didn’t make it.’: Father’s anguish over losing child, ‘drifting apart’ from daughter’s mother after ‘trauma’
‘My mom spent an hour in the driveway in and out of consciousness playing sidewalk chalk with my daughter. We left that night and I knew it would be the last time I saw her.’
“I had plans to go to her alone, but one hour before I left, I told my husband I needed him to come and that I wanted my daughter there too. I always had an intuition about her wellbeing.”
‘We received a call that a sibling set of 4 kids needed a foster home. Our initial reaction was ‘Four kids at one time!?’’
“That’s when the lady broke heart-wrenching news to my wife.”
‘I didn’t have a job or a house. My son was put in foster care. I lost everything because of alcohol.’: Father beats addiction after hitting ‘rock bottom,’ celebrates 3 years of sobriety
“I relapsed and spiraled downhill very fast. I stopped going to my drug and alcohol counselor. I started cancelling visits with my son because I was ‘sick’. I felt so hopeless and unworthy as a parent and human being. Then, my case manager showed up and reminded me I was in it for my son. I literally broke down and cried. I told her to leave, and she refused. ‘I will be with you for anything you need.’ She reassured me I had the potential to do this.”
‘Can you pick him up right now?’ He was 2 months old with severe medical needs and no home. I had no idea what I was in for, but I was all in.’: Birth mother and foster mom ‘build lifelong friendship’
“The nurses warned me: ‘He’s not very interactive.’ He hadn’t smiled or cooed in the whole week he’d been there. ‘Hello, baby boy,’ I said. He immediately broke into a huge grin. Five days later, his mother pulled me into her arms. ‘I have been praying he would be safe and loved.’ This little boy brought us all together.”
