“You know it isn’t good when the doctor sits down at eye level with you. Josh and I took turns holding Holden and crying. We could feel how they all pitied us. We prepared to fight.”
‘He had red dots all over his body. ‘He needs to be seen in the ER right away.’ No one would look at us. I was in shock.’: Mom of 9-month-old with Acute Myeloid Leukemia says ‘We’ve been given a second chance’
‘She was sent home with ‘acid reflux.’ She felt like a wet noodle. At 4 months, she was acting like a brand new baby.’: Mom advocates for undiagnosed, medically-complex warrior
“At 6 weeks old, her breathing became worrisome. She had spells of turning blue in the face. She sounded like a baby piglet. The skin around her neck sucked in with every breath. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but she was just different.”
‘The guilt strikes me. I think about the long list of things I have to do. And then, I wonder, ‘What is wrong with me?’: Tired mama vents to a friend and is reminded it’s OK to need rest
“I vented to a friend. I asked her, ‘What is wrong with me?’ She wrote back. There is only so much one can take.”
‘I don’t need the fancy vacations, the fancy dinners, the big diamond rings. I just need you.’: Woman pens sweet letter to husband, ‘I don’t need anything else but you’
“I need you at 2 a.m., when the rest of the world has gone to sleep. I need to fall asleep next to you, with our legs entangled in one another’s. I don’t need a huge fancy house. I just need you to come home to.”
‘Now, honey. BE SWEET.’ In the heart of Alabama, if you hurt someone’s ego with valid criticism, women are fussed at.’: Mom defends daughter’s right to speak her mind
“Really, it’s just a sugary, Southern way to say, ‘Get back in your lane.’ The highest compliment a young lady could receive was to be seen as ‘a sweet girl.’”
‘One night, out of nowhere, I dreamed I met him. I woke up all warm and tingly. I took that as my sign and decided to go for it.’: Couple share amazing international, interracial love story
“My friends and family were very concerned for my safety, but I knew in my heart I could trust him. His friends believed he was being catfished. My heart was pounding in my chest. I walked out and there he was, the man I had known for five years and fallen in love with, was finally standing in front of me.”
‘I came home from camp with the worst sore throat of my life. The horse I’d ridden mysteriously died the night I got sick.’: Woman details chronic illness journey, finds ‘silver lining’ service dog
“At 12 years old, everything shifted. My life as I knew it changed forever. Our family physician called us late one night when he saw the test results. ‘I just don’t know what to make of this.’ Even the lightest touch of a cotton ball could bring me to tears. My foot was drastically changing colors and temperatures.”
‘My thighs touch. No matter what, they stick together like glue. I never wear shorts, not even in hot as heck Florida.’: Mom urges self-love, ‘These imperfections are the least interesting thing about me’
“Whether I’m sitting, standing, walking, running, my thighs touch. I don’t have eyebrow hair. At my height of 5’3″, my BMI is in the ‘overweight’ range. I never wear shorts anymore. You see, I’ve always been body-conscious.”
‘Do you want to meet your birth parents?’ I remember hearing her shut her car door. I could no longer breathe.’: Woman adopted at birth reunites with birth family, ‘It was my journey to take’
“As an adopted child, feeling like you are ALONE is often just a part of the territory. Feeling that way when I’d been given so much was difficult and made me feel so guilty. With sadness and the ever-growing ‘birth family’ hole in my heart, I moved forward with my life. These ‘search angels’ did more for me than they will ever know.”
‘I send them back, I’m selfish. I keep them home, I’m depriving them of proper education.’: Mom weighs in on school reopenings, ‘We could all use a little extra love right now’
“I don’t want to take that mental health risk, so I’ll send them. But, now I’m greedy and don’t care about the teachers. Okay, so I’ll send them… but, we have to skip Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthday parties. Now, my kids are upset. They miss their family.”