“The next morning, I awoke in our empty bed and reality came crashing down around me. I completely shattered. It had been almost a year since I walked out on our back deck and breathed in the gorgeous fragrance of the fruit trees in full bloom, felt the warm sun on my skin, and took a big, deep breath as my heart swelled with gratitude. Now, my life felt unsurvivable.”
‘My husband left. My son was homeless. My daughter swallowed 160 pills, and my baby would likely be stillborn.’: Woman details surviving ‘massive ball of horror’
‘I went to the ER expecting to find out I was anemic, get treatment and be good to go. Instead, I got that diagnosis. Our worlds were turned upside down.’
“We are almost completely out of milk for her. I am continuing my fight daily in hopes I’m able to watch all of my children grow up, and grow old myself with my husband.”
‘Years after meeting my now husband, I got a call from my father’s new wife. ‘Mommy, are you crying?’ I think she’s on to me.’
“I didn’t need him in my life. ‘We can make it on our own,’ she would say. And I did, for so many years. Then, in early July, he called.”
‘We should talk delivery options.’ My response? ‘Um, excuse me?’ My husband’s phone got the call at 10:53.’: Active-duty Army woman gives birth unexpectedly while on vacation
“We were vacationing in Florida. My husband and I are both active-duty Army. I was 35 weeks pregnant when we flew for one last vacation as a family of 3. I had fallen forward on my belly. I was placed on a gurney, in full uniform, and wheeled through the ER. Little did we know, our little man was about to make a big entrance!”
‘I gave my 10-year-old a math test. He spent nearly an hour on it. He worked each problem with intense concentration.’: Mom urges ‘children are so much more than the box we try to mold them into’
“And then, with a deep breath, he handed it to me to be graded. I quickly worked my way through the test and calculated his score. Immediately his eyes filled with tears.”
‘Stop pushing!,’ my doctor said. ‘No time to wait. His heart rate keeps dropping with every push, I cannot let this keep happening.’
“The epidural I was given hours ago never worked, I was feeling every intense pain throughout my labor. I clung to his words.”
‘The doctor has my husband bend over, takes one look and says the words you don’t EVER want to hear. WHAT HAS HAPPENED? We were hiking just weeks ago.’: Woman shocked by husband’s cancer diagnosis, ‘We were so in love’
“We came home and I made him scrambled eggs and toast for dinner. He fell asleep on the chair. About 8:30 or so, I thought WOW he’s been asleep for a while now, and I tried to wake him up.”
‘I’ll never forget walking into the hospital on a cold January night, preparing to give birth for the second time. The nurses buzzed me through the doors, but the atmosphere was anything but celebratory.’
“Strength was required to face the inevitable questions of ‘is this your first pregnancy?’ Or, ‘how many children do you have?’”
‘She’s too confident,’ they whisper to each other. If only they knew she leads with self-assurance to overcome her debilitating self-doubt and social anxiety.’
“‘She’s too unkempt. Kids are not an excuse for looking so ragged,’ they added. ‘She talks and shares her opinion too much.'”
‘Just as I was attempting to fall asleep, I heard my oldest son whimpering in his room. This is so unusual that I raced down the hallway to check on him.’
“I cried a little bit thinking about my dad and how much I miss him and wish he were here. I fell asleep for a bit, but a weird dream jolted me awake. There were some creaks. Then, there was silence.”