“Both of my girls were upstairs napping when I sat down to surf the internet. Messages started coming in from iMessage. The name didn’t look familiar, and it just seemed odd. I started reading the conversation between my husband and a name I didn’t recognize… He had a stranger over at my house where my kids sleep.”
‘My entire 10-year marriage was a lie. I never really knew the man I was sleeping next to. I married a stranger. ‘Now what? What do I do?’ Something in my gut told me I needed to dig deeper.’
‘My husband told me breast implants would help ‘spice things up’. I was 22 and wanted to feel feminine. I constantly found him viewing pornography, which made me feel undesirable.’
“My joints were swollen and I couldn’t wear my wedding ring anymore. My hair started falling out in chunks that would clog the drain. I figured it was just part of being a new mom and shook it off. No doctor could figure out what was wrong.”
‘I was pregnant. I was only 21. I started bleeding. ‘Maybe it’s for the best,’ one family member said. This was supposed to be the happiest time of my life. Instead, it was a nightmare.’
“Josh came home. He suggested we go for a walk, but when I told him to just take our daughter. He couldn’t understand why – and that’s when I lost it. I was screaming at everyone, ‘WHY AM I HERE? I DON’T UNDERSTAND. WHAT IS THE POINT.’”
‘Hours shy of our wedding, at 5 months pregnant, I was assaulted. My fiancé sat in the fetal position, berating himself. ‘I don’t know what is wrong with me,’ he said, begging me to forgive him.’
“With 3 children, I filed for divorce. It meant food stamps. We all shared the same bed. I decided to do the craziest thing – leave a stable job to fly for the airlines. Single moms don’t do that, right? As I shut down the engine, I could hear my kids yelling, ‘Mommy!’ I was not broken.”
‘I could sense a different tone in his voice. ‘Are you ok?,’ I asked. ‘It’s complicated.’ Panicked, I said, ‘We aren’t okay?’ He replied, ‘I don’t want to talk anymore.’ And the conversation ended.’
“I was so excited for my husband to get home from work that night. I decided to give him a call to see how far out he was. It was a conversation that would completely change my life. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I had no idea why it was happening.”
‘I couldn’t hide the huge bumps on my face. I felt hideous. I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror. I genuinely HATED what I saw.’
“A friend told me, ‘You must not be trying hard enough. Do you wash your face at all?’ For years, I didn’t leave the house. He would offer to take me on dates. My answer was always the same. ‘No.’ I became obsessed.”
‘It was massive, like carrying a lemon inside my boob. ‘Not me,’ I said. ‘No way, I have no family history of it.’ Now I was faced with another alarming decision. Boobs or no boobs?’
“I asked the doctor, ‘What happened to flat?’ He replied, ‘I thought you might change your mind.’ As I sat there blinking in awe, I thought to myself, ‘This guy is nuts, I can’t even speak.”
‘A boy tapped me. ‘Why do you have a mustache? What’s that mark between your eyebrows?’ I was shocked. My face flushed with embarrassment.’
“My mom started letting me wear concealer. I wouldn’t allow myself to go out in public without my ‘mask’ on. I was terrified of what people would think if they saw me in my raw state.”
‘I’m a plus-sized mom and I wore the swimsuit. No, I didn’t just wear that bad boy, I rocked that spandex leotard-like one piece like it was my J-O-B!’
“I was praying the length of the walk to the beach chairs something like, ‘Lord, help me to have peace about this body so I can confidently enjoy my time with my family and these precious kids you gave me.'”
‘Most of the moms were staying high and dry. Except this one mom’: Woman’s realization about the ONE FEAR holding her back after random encounter at splash pad
“She didn’t care, and neither did her kids. She was in there, in-it-to-win-it style – soaking wet, going down the water slide.”
