“With a brilliant smile the cashier said, ‘You made my day.’ As I walked out of the store, holding my daughter’s hand, I stole a glance back at the young woman. Her energy was brighter now than it had been when we first entered her line. In this very moment, my daughter learned the power in raising others up.”
‘Tell her,’ I whispered to my daughter as she pressed her body against mine. The cashier’s face lit up.’: Mom shares beautiful moment daughter learns ‘the power in raising others up’
‘No boy? Their daddy is going to have a hard time when they are teens, watch out!’: Mom to four girls powerfully responds to gender remarks from strangers, urges ‘words matter’
“At first it didn’t bother me, the stares or the questions, but then it started to chip away at me. With each comment, my daughters would silently absorb a stranger making me feel less because we were a large family of girls. With each question, my daughters would internalize something they couldn’t yet grasp.”
‘We received the call. ‘You’re the chosen home for a girl and boy ages 1 and 2.’ DHS labeled their case ‘Shocking and Heinous.’: Mom candidly shares emotional sibling adoption journey
“They had been taken away from all they knew, too young to understand what was happening. Too young to ask why. They had no idea who we were and why they were in our home. It didn’t matter what color our skin was, how much money we had, or where we lived – it was about love. It was about fighting to give them a better future.”
‘Mom, what’s wrong with that boy?’ She was looking at MY boy. It broke my heart forever.’: Mom advocates for son with rare genetic abnormality
“The doctor tried to comfort me. ‘I see it very often.’ Then she looked at him. What we found was worse than we could ever imagine.”
‘Your mom has taken her own life.’ The room spun as I screamed. If I had answered her call, could I have stopped her?’: Woman loses mom to suicide, advocates for mental health
“She ran away for the first time just before I turned 9. She drove straight to the airport and headed across the country. ‘I promise I’ll make it home for your birthday.’ She wasn’t there.”
‘He said, ‘You’re in the thick of it right now. One day you will be having coffee at the kitchen table in silence again. There’s an end.’: Mom to toddlers urges ‘I’m going to miss this’
“I looked down at my sweet smiling two-year-old, eyes following a bird in flight above. ‘But I’m going to miss this,’ I answered in a soft, quiet voice. Because gosh, I’m going to miss this.”
‘I looked in the mirror. ‘There’s no way I have anorexia. I’m not thin enough.’: Woman recovers from eating disorders, ‘I finally feel at home in my body
“In fourth grade, I remember looking over at the girl sitting next to me. ‘Why don’t I look like her?’ Her stomach was flat, not round like mine.”
‘They asked, ‘Does she taste salty?’ Panic began to sink in.’: Mom says daughter’s cystic fibrosis is ‘a mama’s worst nightmare’
“If you kissed Alexis on the forehead and licked your lips, it would taste like the ocean. All the blood drained from my face.“
‘What began as a single kitchen turned into 2,100 TONS of food.’: Man serves 15 million meals to homeless community during pandemic
“I had NO idea how I’d do it or where I’d get the money. I just knew I HAD to.”
‘Your pregnancy is extremely high-risk.’ No baby had ever survived this.’: Disabled mom survives near-fatal pregnancy, shares mental health journey
“My body has more implants and bionic body parts/organs than human parts. I’m not the mother I envisioned myself being, but I get out of bed anyway. For my kids, for my husband, and for myself.”