“We got married! I was so happy, I truly thought we were going to be okay. I had two amazing daughters, a rocking career, a husband who wasn’t perfect, but he tried. Then my world fell apart.”
‘I found out my marriage was a lie. He was unfaithful. I had been lied to for months. I spewed venomous hate towards him. I was numb. Then, I found out I was having a miscarriage.’
‘I met him on a dating site. I was scared because you hear horror stories about creeps. Out of all the guys, Jimmy was the ONLY one who didn’t ask me. He changed my life completely.’
“28 years ago I was born with a spinal cord injury due to my doctor using forceps, and came out basically dead. Doctors told my parents I would be like a vegetable. But they were wrong. Then, I met Jimmy.”
‘I was over 600 pounds. I feared my wife would find me dead of a heart attack. I had two choices: lose weight or die.’
“I couldn’t walk more than a few hundred feet. People avoided me in public, as if being overweight was contagious. One parent used me as a lesson for their kid. ‘Look at him. This is what happens when you don’t eat right,’ she said.”
‘During high school, I decided it was time to tell my family. The thought of losing them was scary. I would return to school after break, for the first time, as myself.’
“To others, I was in need of fixing. In an attempt to make me more masculine and ‘grow out of it,’ I was placed in sports. I feared what I would face.”
‘Stephanie, can you tell me what day it is? Do you know what year it is?’ Zoning in and out of a dark haze, paramedics asked me these questions. My strength was gone, my spirit was broken.’
“It was an eerily early morning knock. There stood my mom. On her right side was my uncle, and on the left was my Papaw. ’Your brother has been in a car accident, Steph.’ That one moment was a life changer for me. He finally gave me an ultimatum, ‘I cannot watch this any longer. You choose right now, me or him.'”
‘What’s the point?,’ I overheard in the corner of the room. I was laboring alone. My husband and I’s marriage was in shambles at that point.’
“‘And you continued the pregnancy anyways?,’ he said in a shocked and condescending tone, as he shook his head. My living unicorn was born with a full head of hair, and a palpable will to live. There wasn’t a dry eye in that delivery room.”
‘My doctor grew silent. ‘There is something out of the ordinary here.’ She wasn’t looking at 1 or 2 embryos, but 4. Quadruplets!’
“My husband began to question if it was a joke, but the doctor reconfirmed. We would be parents to four babies! The second we left the clinic, fear invaded us.”
‘One of my NYPD officers comes in. ‘Hey Lieu, you’re a single guy. Why don’t you try TINDER?’ I looked at him and literally laughed out loud.’
“Three months prior to our wedding, my son went on vacation with his biological mother. Unbeknownst to us, her plan was to never return. We got the message that crushed us to the core. As I sat with my head buried in my hands, my wife gave me the strength I never knew I had.”
‘Bullets pinged off the metal gates. I had a death grip on her hand and there was no way in hell I was letting her go. I glanced to the side as people ran for their lives.’
“We always want to know where the nearest exit is. Our minds are forever thinking of an escape plan. The triggers can hit when we least expect it.”
‘He did not cheat on you without a reason. You must be boring.’ My mind went into overdrive. My whole world was a lie. How could he do this to us, his beautiful family?’
“After 12 years, my husband told me it is ‘no longer working’ between us. I found out he had an affair, with a girl he met on online. Together, they wrecked my family.”
