“‘Can my day just be done?,’ I heard her say. She then said a word that took me by surprise, and scared me: ‘Abort.’”
‘I heard her in the hall, talking about the ‘awful day’ she was having, and all the’ rough news’ she was having to break to families. When she entered, everything changed.’
‘I was taken from school to my last foster home. I didn’t get to say goodbye to anyone. I didn’t know I would NEVER go home again. My parents had run out of chances.’
“I remember the car. The social workers wore suits, and the car was dark blue. I sat in the back. The child lock was on, and I felt trapped. When we arrived at the foster home, it was a place I had been in with my sister, but I still didn’t understand. This time, it was only me.”
‘My doctor held my hand and started, ‘Tami…’ In that moment, I knew. I couldn’t breathe because I knew. Or at least I thought I did. My heart exploded with relief!’
“We were walking out of the house when a feather floated right in front of us. As we sat enjoying our morning coffee, another tiny feather made an appearance. On the drive home, I kept thinking … two feathers … what does that mean? But I had a hunch. I went straight to the bathroom and found a pregnancy test.”
‘He is coming!’ I was alone. I was in denial. My husband was deployed. I couldn’t possibly be giving birth without my two partners present.’
“Is my baby boy okay? All I wanted was my husband. Waiting for him to arrive at the hospital felt like a lifetime. When he arrived I collapsed into his arms sobbing. He asked what was wrong, but I could barely get the words out.”
‘Our beautifully ‘normal’-looking child just cussed us out and threw a chair. That isn’t your fault any more than it’s mine, or his really. He isn’t a problem, but he is HAVING a problem.’
“When Karen says, ‘Ugh, my kids are so hard! They just called me ‘mean’ in Target. I was so embarrassed!’ I want to shake you and tell you how easy you have it and to hug your kids because they are freaking angels!”
‘Every couple has fought on the way to a party, only to step out of the car smiling. We post pictures of our kids melting down, but never share photos crying after an ugly argument.’
“We have a wonderful marriage. But we also have bad days where I dread the sound of his car pulling into the garage. When I’m really mad, I imagine what my life would look like as a single mom. This is normal. It’s OK.”
‘He started to vomit a green color. Nurse after nurse continued to say everything was ‘normal.’ Even this green bile? ‘Yeah that’s normal.’’
“As his parents, we knew something was off. We were scared, and it was not being validated by anyone.”
‘I curled up next to my son in the hospital bed, careful not to disturb his chemo dripping into his body. We had been in the hospital for 28 straight days.’
“It did not look like we were going home anytime soon.”
‘I tandem nursed until my oldest was 4.5 years old. My youngest is 3.5 years old and is still happily nursing. She will wean when she is good and ready.’
“Sometimes when people hear that my children nurse for much longer than what is seen as normal, they get weird and disgusted. This is exactly why we are so passionate about these photos and normalizing breastfeeding.”
‘I did the unspeakable. And when the officer said, ‘What happened?’ I replied, ‘I need help.’
“I began my life long journey with mental health when I was nine-years-old. Little did I know that asking and getting help would change everything.”
