“The next day I woke up and we went to get breakfast. While we were driving he says, ‘I can’t believe that happened last night.’ ‘What happened?’ He said, ‘You don’t remember? ‘ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He got mad because I didn’t remember our ‘first time.’”
‘One drink, I had one drink and after that, I remember nothing. My virginity was taken before I was ready.’ Woman’s powerful story overcoming boyfriend’s sexual assault
‘Someone at school told me you’re gay.’ I couldn’t keep this secret any longer. I poured my heart out to her. I thought I’d lost my friend. Until my phone pinged. ‘I like you, too.’
“We hid, for months. People started to suspect our relationship. We were pelted with rocks while waiting for the bus. We were spat on. Soon, her mom found out. They moved her 10 hours away. I barely had any contact with her. As the train arrived on the platform, she was waiting for me.”
‘Is she your real daughter? Who does she belong to?‘ At 4, I was adopted with my twin sister by a white Mennonite family in the heart of Amish country.’
“‘I bet you are so glad someone actually wanted you,’ a stranger told me. I am running through the grass, almost to the woods to find my biological mother. ‘My real mother!,’ I shout. ‘Hold still,’ my mom shouts, before I trip. She chased me, and scoops me up.”
‘I woke up next to my beloved husband with our 3 children across the hall, and realized I am no longer straight.’
“I paused what I was doing, took a deep breath, and asked, ‘Would you like to know something interesting about me?’ He said, ‘Yes, babe.’ He stopped washing the dishes, and turned to me. I broke down crying.”
‘I almost didn’t go in. I knew no one. All the women had head-coverings and I didn’t. I parked my car and prayed it was the right thing to do.’
“Tentatively, and with a teary catch in my throat, I asked ‘May I leave this sign?’ ‘Are you a Muslim?’ I said … ‘No, ma’am, Christian.’ To which she said — ‘We are all the same.’ I went in a stranger with a sign, and came out with a friend; hopefully for life.”
‘There’s a picture of you with a shawl around your head. Why are you wearing that?’ I was scared to tell her.’: Daughter converts to Islam, keeps decision from her mom because she ‘didn’t want to hurt her feelings’
“I had sent in my application and a few weeks later, my mom called me to tell me there was an envelope in the mail for me. Not knowing what it was, I told her to go ahead and open it. I was no longer living a secret life. I could be free with my mom now, or so I thought… When others started learning about my conversion, they’d put bad thoughts into my mom’s head.”
‘When I was 18 years old, I had an abortion. The reasons were deplorable. I was in my first year of college, with a boyfriend I no longer loved. When I was 23, I had another abortion.’
“Before I could blink, I had an adoring husband, a 2-year-old and I was fresh off the ache of a miscarriage. When a recent layoff made insurance scarce and the price of genetic testing unreasonable, I went without it when I became pregnant once again.”
When the devil looked my marriage in the eyes and said, ‘You are not worthy of a child, your body has failed you and your arms will forever be empty,’ God looked back and said, ‘Sit down.’
“It started on the cold lonely bathroom floor where I lay in a pool of my own blood, saying goodbye to the children my body could not protect, grow, and nurture. Three pregnancies in nine months that all end in miscarriage is not good for the body. Or the mind. Or the soul.”
‘In my dream, this man I didn’t know was so clear in my mind. 2 days later, I saw a guy standing by the lake. It was him!’: Woman in awe after ‘the power of faith’ and ‘waiting’ brought her the love of her life
“I was single and hadn’t dated for over 10 years. As we got closer to the dock, I immediately recognized him. My heart instantly put up a guard. I mean, the last time I saw this guy was in my dream and I’d lost sleep because all I could see was his face! My friends and family were shocked this wonderful man seemed to have been dropped down into my life. ‘Where did he come from?!’ I kept hearing. When I looked back at my journal, I wrote about the qualities I prayed for in my future husband. I cried as I flipped through the pages. It was so clear it was him.”
‘Let’s address the pornography issue. To those who think I ‘jumped ship,’ you’re right – I did. Because we were not yet married, it was not my job to ‘fix him.’’
“We already had over 300 wedding invitations sent out. We had to call every single one of those people and tell them what happened to inform them the wedding was off. Pornography addiction does not just affect you. It affects the people around you.”
