“With tears running down my cheeks, I turned to my husband and told him the news. We were devastated. There were no red flags no warning signs. The next morning, we were called to the hospital. She was in labor – our baby girl was coming.”
‘The day before we were supposed to fly out, we got a call. ‘We haven’t been able to reach her for 24 hours. This isn’t a good sign.’ My heart sank. We were completely shocked.’
‘You might look at these pictures, and feel uncomfortable. You might think, ‘I could never ‘share’ my child like that.’ She leaves the hospital with empty arms. Open adoption does not equal co-parenting.’
“During her second trimester she sent me emails letting me know about the SpaghettiOs he was making her crave. She gave us a jar of pink and blue candies and made us count every single one to find out if it was a boy or a girl. They gave them life and I am teaching them how to live it.”
‘We called it ‘Naughty November.’ We were on a roll for the first 3 days. And then I got my period and lost my mojo. I didn’t want my husband to touch me.’
“I hate to admit it, but having sex feels like a chore. I can’t be the only one? I felt like I failed. I would rather just sleep and be alone.”
‘It never fails that when I get home, relaxed and full from a great dinner, the kids in bed, and the wife says, ‘Baby will you do me a favor?’
“I already know what’s coming – Without fail, every night.”
‘Yes, I am a single, widow in her 40s. I know that can be tough to deal with. But frankly, I am tired of hearing, ‘I don’t think I can ever live up to him.’
“There’s something about ‘dating a widow’ that is so hard, and so intimidating for men. They struggle with the idea that a woman can develop feelings for somebody while still loving a man who has passed away.”
‘I was cleaning my wedding ring. I’m a ‘guys’ guy. My hands stay banged up and dirty. I work on cars, the yard, they get dirty. My ring bares the brunt.’
“Friends have asked why I take the time to clean it when it will get dirty and no one will notice a difference. ‘You’re the man, no one cares how pretty your ring is’. Here’s the thing. IT. DOES. MATTER. Why?”
‘Whenever friends asks me to do something, I respond with, ‘Let me ask my husband first.’
“*GASP* I ask my husband for permission? No, Tim is not my parent. That’s not the point of asking.”
‘A woman had a home that was ‘perfect for a couple that isn’t together, to live together.’ 2 years from the day I moved out, we moved back in together, as a co-parenting family.’
“The first night, Onyx cried out and before I could rush to his side, Tyler was already there soothing him back to sleep. I knew in that moment that although this was unconventional, this was right for us.”
‘When my son was 10 months old, I fell in love with a guy who I thought was the one. The one I was positive I was going to marry. Everything was so great – or so it seemed.’
“Motherhood for me wasn’t the typical falling in love and making a baby. In my case, I was a 20-year-old living in a new city, who got drugged, sexually assaulted and pregnant. ‘Why did you keep the baby?’ Well, let me tell you… This baby was a MIRACLE.”
‘At the top of my lungs I was screaming, ‘Please God, please don’t take him, I know you hear me, don’t take him!’ I looked down and saw his eyes rolling back in his head.’
“He was a Marine, tall, handsome, had every quality I dreamed of as a little girl in a husband. He was my ‘rock.’ Years went by, and we continued to drift apart emotionally. Then, our lives changed that day.”
