“They don’t leave with a baby, but they leave with bravery and courage that is unmatched. We wanted to give back to this brave community of birth mothers.”
‘Would you like to hold your son?’: Mom shares emotional adoption journey, amazing act of kindness for birth moms
‘Sis, we need to talk. The doctor called. You’re pregnant.’ I was only 14. I just wanted to be a kid.’: Teen mom beats all odds, now mom of 3
“I was just a child and I was having to take care of my mother. Making sure she ate, making sure she didn’t drown in her bowl of soup, and making sure she didn’t fall asleep with a cigarette in her mouth and burn the house down. She was supposed to be taking care of me, not me taking care of her.”
‘I was 15 and pregnant. No one ever asked my boyfriend any questions. No one ever gave him dirty looks at the store.’: Teen mom advocates for right to choose ‘with love, support, and help for ANY decision’
“Some say, ‘If you don’t want the baby you should just put ‘it’ up for adoption.’ As if putting ‘it’ up for adoption is the easy thing. As if pregnancy leaves no scars. As if once the child is born, she could move on as if nothing ever happened.”
‘We have a birth mom in labor. Might you be interested?’ It hadn’t been 2 days since the crippling news. ‘Could this be it?’: After two failed adoptions, couple adopt baby boy
“I logged onto Facebook to find a message from a woman I didn’t know, claiming the expectant mom had told her she’d be placing her baby with them. Within weeks, I received a dozen more emails from different families claiming the same thing. Our dream suddenly became a nightmare.”
‘How could I have been so selfish for getting pregnant?’ At 18, there was someone growing inside of me.’: Teen birth mom shares emotional adoption plan, ‘I knew they’d never go a day without being loved’
“The rush to the bathroom every morning, the little kicks in my stomach, the constant embarrassment – it was a lot to deal with at such a young age in such a small town. The guilt was eating at me. Then I found them. A picture of a couple and 2 tiny pairs of shoes underneath a sign reading: waiting for you.”
‘At 15, I started numbing my grief with drugs and alcohol. Two years later, I was pregnant.’: Teen mom shares mental health, healing journey, ‘I did it against all odds’
“I apprehensively showed him the test, thinking surely he’d turn around and run the other way. Instead, he hugged me as my mascara ran down my face, telling me, ‘Everything will be okay.’ I knew he was going to change my life.”
‘I was 18, too in my prime to be PREGNANT! Boy, were those two lines so clear.’: Young woman navigating single motherhood urges ‘it doesn’t define who you are’
“I was promised my boyfriend would be there for me. Because of my circumstances, my party life had stopped. Meanwhile, his kept going. My relationship with my child’s father was slowly crumbling.”
‘I spent my whole life trying to fit in, suppressing the things about me that made me different.’: Woman diagnosed with autism at 41
“I put on a show for the sake of others, all the while denying myself the opportunity to live authentically.”
‘Here he comes,’ my OB said. The entire room fell into an ear-piercing silence. ‘Are you aware your son has abnormalities?’: Young mom celebrates ‘one in a million’ son born with limb differences
“I couldn’t find my voice. My brain was still processing. She placed him on my chest. He was so warm, so beautiful. As I took him in, the film ‘Wonde’r I’d watched during pregnancy flashed. I’d turned to my best friend and said, ‘I could never be ashamed of my child if they were born special. That’s all the more reason to treasure them.’ Gratitude filled my heart. I was chosen for this.”
‘You need to get rid of that baby.’ Not even married for a month, my husband stopped coming home.’: Teenager becomes single mom, advocate
“‘Hey mom, I know it’s late, but can I come home now?’ I’d been abandoned. What in the world was I going to do with a child? I was still a child!”
