“All it takes is one unexpected bill, one fender bender, one lay-off, one house fire. I pay to shower at local truck stops and eat whatever can be cooked in a gas station microwave. Someone sees my daughter and I daughter living like this and calls CPS. They remove her from my care. Next, I lose my job. ‘An employee losing their child reflects poorly on this company.’ My window is smashed, my belongings stolen. I call the homeless shelter: ‘The beds are all full.’ We are all so close to homelessness.”
‘Time’s up!’ My landlord arrives at 7 a.m. to change the locks. Now, I live in a car with my 7-year-old.’: Woman details domino effect of poverty, urges us to ‘be thankful’ for what we have
‘How do you feel about being pregnant?’ I saw little eyes, fingers. ‘This must be a mistake.’ I was 100% knocked up.’: Teen mom loses boyfriend in car crash months before birth, graduates with 4.0
“I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh, be happy or sad. There was a real freaking baby in me! I had so many dreams and aspirations. Teen pregnancy was not in my plans. I dialed my father’s number. ‘Please don’t answer, please don’t answer.’ I took a deep breath. ‘Hello?’ I couldn’t speak. The worst was yet to come. I started bawling.”
‘I want to live!,’ I was screaming. The cops were on their way. I was trying to get out of the bathroom, trying to get my boyfriend off me, trying to hide in the tub.’: Single mom’s empowering story of surviving domestic abuse with infant daughter
“I had 3 months to figure out my escape. I stopped fighting back with my daughter’s father and kept calm. He was losing control, and it drove him crazy. ‘You’re not gonna take her from me,’ he’d say. I’d wake up to him pacing the kitchen talking to himself. I stayed quiet and texted a friend who said, ‘Wait 10 minutes, and then you call the cops. He could be lying.’”
‘MOM YOU DID IT!’ I had gone from a married stay-at-home, homeschooling mother, to a single mom of 4 and nursing school graduate. And then it finally happened. I cried.’: Single mom’s empowering journey navigating ‘messy divorce’
“When my marriage imploded, I didn’t shed a tear. Up until the split, I had been a stay-at-home oilfield wife. I home-schooled the children. It started to hit me. Great big tears poured from my eyes as I walked across the stage. I turned to my kids in the crowd. We did it, together.”
‘I felt pregnant, but odds were slim. Brad was declared sterile. No one had ever survived a recurrence from this disease.’: Woman gets pregnant with ‘miracle baby’ despite husband’s terminal cancer diagnosis
“‘Go home and enjoy the time you have left,’ our doctor told us. Brad could not reckon the idea of leaving me as a single mom. But, I could not reckon the idea of not having a piece of him here with me on earth. We decided to take a giant leap of faith.”
‘Mom she’s gone, I just know.’ I sat on my stairs with my front door open, in shock.’: How this ‘broken’ mother helps other parents of child loss heal after her own tragedy
“Seeing my sweet baby girl laying in a huge bed, much too big for her, made me fall to my knees. A nurse said to me, ‘Get off the floor, it’s so dirty.’ I was angry at her, I was angry at the hospital chaplain placing his eerie hand on my shoulder with no real comfort. No parent should have to write their child’s eulogy, or decide between a casket or an urn. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.”
‘He had a stranger over at my house where my kids sleep. My entire 10-year marriage was a lie. I left him without a car and without a plan.’: Woman credits husband’s infidelity with life- changing weight loss
“In one night, I found out I weighed over 400 pounds. I also found out I was pregnant and losing a baby in one breath. I am still working through those emotions. That moment was a severe wake-up call that I needed to change my life. I didn’t realize how much my husband’s infidelity had affected me until I stepped on that scale.”
‘She’s been promising her baby to 4 other families.’ We’d been scammed by our birth mother. Tears streaming, I hoped it was a bad dream. All I wanted was to be a mother.’
“At that same ultrasound, while holding the hand of another adoptive mother, she was texting me details of the visit and sex of the baby. She’d ‘panic’ and ask for more money so she wouldn’t change her mind and take him away from us. She knew all about me and my infertility. She knew exactly what she was doing.”
‘I asked for $20 for diapers. My husband called me a ‘pathetic gold-digger’. It felt like a cruel joke. Post-labor, I became a full-time mom while he worked. We made this decision TOGETHER.’
“I felt my blood boiling. ‘Was this your plan all along? Mooch off me while you do NOTHING all day.’ He followed me into the bedroom. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.”
