“I’ll never forget the words he said. ‘Knowing what his brain looks like, I can’t believe he is talking like this.’ I went to my car and cried. I cried tears of joy and tears of relief. And if I’m being honest, a few tears of fear. By early May, it was confirmed.”
‘When he turned a year old, he couldn’t sit up. He didn’t play with toys. He was essentially a newborn. He kept his left hand clenched, and his entire left side was tight.’
‘They found something. I don’t want to ruin your Christmas.’ I sat with my head against the closet, ruined.’: Woman loses husband to Stage 4 Stomach Cancer after multiple misdiagnoses, claims his death ‘saved 3 family members, daughters’
“I remember sitting there with my head against the closet thinking my Christmas Eve was already ruined without him there. I remember the tears started streaming down my face even though I tried to keep it together for him and the girls. My older daughter came over and wrapped her arms around my neck because she could tell I was upset.”
‘Two months in, we were faced with a positive pregnancy test. My wife wanted an abortion. I was crushed.’: Husband shares how they navigated unexpected pregnancy, differing opinions about abortion
“It’s safe to say things didn’t go as planned.”
‘I plan to finally tell my homophobic parents I’m gay and transgender. By that time, they can’t do anything about it!’
“I asked him if he would come to the hideout so we could talk. No adult knew about it. He met me there, and I told him I was gay. ‘I don’t want to date a guy, that’s disgusting!’ I was devastated.”
‘I wouldn’t care if I didn’t wake up,’ I texted my husband. I planned to ram my car into the cement pillars under the overpass.’: Woman battling depression reminds us to ‘take it one day at a time’
“My husband got a new job so we could see each other more. Things were going well until one day I randomly got extremely depressed. My husband left for work and I started thinking, ‘You’re fat. You’re ugly. No one loves you, and you aren’t going anywhere in life.’ I grabbed my keys, hugged my cat, got in my car, and started driving down the highway. This was it. This was the day I was going to commit suicide.”
‘My 8-year-old asked what the sign said that she was holding. ‘Out of work, please help,’ I told him. My son asked me why I didn’t help.’
“I could tell it had been days since she was able to get clean. She had a lot of items that would normally be left at a house. I could see her staring at the ground. We drove past her. I looked away, and felt shame rush over me.”
‘Can I still use the tickets even though my baby passed?’ Their response: ‘No, your guest must be present.’ My heart broke into a million pieces.’: Mom loses baby girl to pneumonia, ‘She isn’t in pain, she is free’
“The day she died was the day we got the email that we had won the tickets. I asked if we could still use it for my girls, even though one was now my angel baby. It felt like the perfect thing to honor and remember her. A simple no would have been okay with me, but their words felt like a stab to the heart. The bear lost its meaning to me.”
‘Are you a boy or a girl?’ My daughter responded with the craziest look on her face. ‘I’m a girl!’ I knew she was gay.’: Mom creates ‘safe space’ for her daughter to be ‘whoever she wants’
“By the time she was 4, her tomboy phase became something different. I remember getting her ready for school. ‘Mom, I want to dress like a girl today!,’ she said. I went out to the living room and told my husband to ‘not make a big deal about what she was wearing.’ He was her protector.”
‘I got pregnant at 22 because I wanted someone to show me unconditional love. I remember seeing my baby for the first time and thinking, ‘Ugh.’
“I loved my son, but I would have harmful thoughts. ‘He is so small, what if I just suffocated him?’ I heard stories on the news of women killing their children and I would think, ‘Oh my gosh, is that going to be me?’”
‘I had 34 beautiful bridesmaids at my wedding! I didn’t know it would turn out the way it did. It just sort of happened.’: Woman has ‘truly magical’ beach wedding with all her girlfriends
“We pulled over to grab some Chick-Fil-A. Everything seemed normal. My husband opened the car door. I wasn’t dolled up. My hair was undone. There was not a spec of makeup on me. I never expected what was going to happen next.”