Sonia Beltz is a former digital editor for Love What Matters based near Dayton, Ohio. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. In her free time, you can find her writing, reading, or researching random historical facts online. Follow her on Instagram at @skatbel.
“If it wasn’t for my mental illness, I might still be in a loveless marriage, stuck working on the same old nursing unit, without any aspirations of becoming a best-selling author one day.”
“I didn’t buy any bottles or read how to use my pump. I cried in agony and shame. I sacrificed my freedom, time, energy, sleep, and breasts for only a few ounces.”
“I did everything I could to prepare, but it just wasn’t enough.”
“I spent my teenage years at the hospital, taking over-the-counter painkillers every day like they were sweets. I didn’t know how I would survive.”
“I couldn’t eat, I slept all the time, I lost 13 pounds in two weeks. I really didn’t know what to do.”
“There was a flash of light, screams. My reality became a blur. Everything I had ever imagined for myself was gone.”
“‘She left here with a big stomach, and when she came back, she had you.’ She came back with a 1.5-year-old child, overnight—just like that? Not one person was willing to share the truth with me.”
“At 2 years and 9 months, he was diagnosed with Autism. Did it change who he was? Not for a second.”
“Not one tear fell from my eyes. I just said, ‘I know,’ and you were officially part of our lives forever. You are a huge part of my little boy, but you do not define him.”
“‘Hey mom, I know it’s late, but can I come home now?’ I’d been abandoned. What in the world was I going to do with a child? I was still a child!”
