“I don’t want to be touched. I don’t think about my fairy tales anymore; I just read them on repeat to my children. I’m in survival mode.”
‘I’m trapped. I wonder how many times I can grimace when he touches my arm or roll away from him in bed before he quits trying altogether.’: Woman recounts her relationship struggles
‘I am SICKENED this phrase is on a lunch box.’: Mom urges ‘girls, you are beautiful, worthy, and whole beings’
“See this? This is a picture I snapped today of a little girl’s lunchbox I saw for sale. We wonder, ‘Why do our girls worry so much about their bodies so young?’ THIS. This is the reason why.”
‘I was crammed in a car with my girlfriends, driving to the hospital to support our best friend about to place her baby boy.’: Mom shares adoption journey, what she would have told younger self
“By the time we got to the hospital she had already delivered him. I remember walking in the room to see my beautiful friend laying there, a sheen of sweat still visible on her forehead, tired, solemn and more quiet than usual – and thinking she was the bravest, strongest, person I’d ever known.”
‘I don’t fit in. They don’t really want me there. I wonder why I wasn’t invited. I walk up to a circle of people and don’t know whether to force my way in or hang on the outside’: Woman’s realization on ‘fitting in’
“Circles are great if you’re on the inside. But circles can be awfully cruel if you’re left on the outskirts. They can be excluding. Exhausting. Cliquish. Childish. They are far, far too common.”
‘The government thought I was a superhuman. My parents met in a cult called ‘New Testament Church’ in the 1980s. You can see things ranging from demons, to Big Bird, to Ryan Reynolds.’
“I had a forty-percent chance of getting it, but always knew I would. Although I tried to avoid it, it was ultimately inevitable.”
‘I am so, so sorry. I gave you the wrong results, I read them wrong, you are actually not pregnant.’ I remember thinking, oh no, here’s where the skeleton comes out of the closet.’: Couple given wrong results during infertility struggle, finally experience ‘miracle’ pregnancy
“He then looked at us, and said, ‘What are you talking about?! No sperm??’ ‘We were told there was no sperm,’ I said. I burst into tears, not believing that what he was saying was true. It couldn’t be true.”
‘What did you do to your child!’ I hadn’t grasped the accusation, I could see the fractures. He continued, ‘I’ve ordered a full CAT scan to determine if you caused brain damage to your daughter!’
“I couldn’t understand how, but there was the evidence right in front of me. Undeniable proof that she indeed was hurt and hurt badly. How could my precious little one-month old baby have four broken bones at once!”
‘She must have known she was pregnant.’ I was four months pregnant, and I had no idea.’: Woman has rainbow baby after miscarrying at home without realizing she was pregnant
“I hadn’t known I was pregnant, but I have photos of Pippit hugging me like this as I slept while I was pregnant with Liam. I was emotional, exhausted and couldn’t help but fall asleep when I least expected to. I had been 4 months pregnant, and I had no idea. It was a shock. I was in disbelief.”
‘She and her brother are both adopted, so we couldn’t even do a half match! That call was devastating. How could we come this far and not have any matches?! We felt hopeless.’
“We searched for weeks, and came up empty handed. I remember so vividly sitting in the waiting room thinking this is just a bad dream and we would wake up!”
‘I laid awake at night, my stomach in knots, terrified it was the boy embryo that took. I couldn’t even picture raising a boy. It brought me to tears. Full blown survivor’s guilt.’
“Gender disappointment after overcoming infertility? I felt awful. I felt selfish. I was mad at the fact there was a perfect little boy growing inside me. How could I be so greedy? So privileged? Women are yearning for a healthy baby, and I’m crying over…well, sex organs.”