“When I met my husband, the most stable man I’d ever encountered, I immediately said ‘I do.’ But we hadn’t even made it to year 7 of marriage yet, and I was itchy. Here’s why. Prior to this dream vacation, I woke up to my nightmare.”
‘My husband and I took a trip. It was our first vacation together in 2 years. Long before his heart, and our world, stopped.’
‘I’ll give you a 6-pack if you meet with me and drive around.’ I said, ‘Ok, I’ll be back later tonight.’ My heart was racing thinking about getting into a car with a man I don’t know. But I was desperate.’
“I can still feel the chilly air on my face. All I really wanted to do was go home. ‘Why did I get myself into this?,’ I thought. We stopped at hotels. He tried to force me, but I was able to push him off and say ‘no’ enough times. He was nice enough to stop.”
‘My husband was my rock. But he was secretly falling apart as well. I thought it was because he never mourned our baby girl. He had been having an affair.’
“Not only had he been having an affair, but he ‘loved’ this other woman. We were approached about a pregnant woman looking for an adoptive family for her baby. I begged. My husband had a vasectomy and we paid an absurd amount of money to get it reversed. Chances were slim.”
‘Before kids you sleep in. After kids you’re whacked in the face at 5 a.m. because you’re someone’s little breakfast making machine because sleep is overrated.’
“Before kids, you make out in your big bed, have a little nasty time and fall asleep lovingly in each other’s arms. After kids, you promise you’ll meet up later and lock the bathroom door for some adult time, but instead you both fall asleep snoring.”
‘From the bathroom all he heard was, ‘BABE?!’ Just 2 weeks after meeting the birth mom, we found out we were pregnant. I was actually mad. ‘God why NOW?’
“I had a missed call. My husband then got a call. We looked at each other… ‘Answer it!’ ‘Louis, are you with Audrey?’ ‘Yes, she can hear you.’ The words she spoke stopped time for me. Everything she said next was hard to process. I was shocked.”
‘This is my dad, mowing my mom’s lawn. They’ve been divorced 28 years.’
“When my younger siblings questioned, ‘Why is your dad mowing mom’s lawn?,’ I told them, ‘Because she needed help, so he did.’ This is co-parenting. This is how lucky I am to have 4 parents who respect each other.”
‘I bought a new bathing suit. I know it’s dumb, but this is what I do because I’m a masochist.’ Mom’s HILARIOUS adventures preparing for vacation
“It’s a high-waisted bottom which is like the mullet of swimwear. I didn’t try it on because no one needs to pick me up from the Marshall’s changing room floor, and like I said, I AM A WOMAN OF FAITH.”
‘As my mom battles her dementia I realize the importance of a memory’: Daughter savors the ‘crazy, laughter, tears’ because ‘it’s all that matters’
“As she loses more and more of these moments she has tucked away, we realize the depth of her loss. The pain it brings us and must bring her as she slowly disappears.”
‘For those of you thinking of taking your family on vacation but you’re not 100% sure, TAKE. THE. TRIP.’
“A few years ago during a funeral visitation, I remember walking up to a casket to a grieving husband, friend, father. He left my husband and I with words we’ll never forget and since then we have lived those words.’
‘I struggled enormously with how to love a baby who was going to die’: Mom’s grief over losing her ‘proudest accomplishment’ after only 444 days
“The day after she turned seven months old, we took her home from hospital again. I didn’t realize this at the time, but this was the day she smiled at me for the last time.”
