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.
“’Oh, you are a gym rat! Your legs are always sore.’ I was a workaholic, so with my chest hurting and shortness of breath, I finished my shift. ‘I feel like I am going to die.’”
“I was sobbing uncontrollably. My husband told them to unhook me and washed my bald head and pregnant belly. It was too much. I was not OK with subjecting my baby to this too.”
“‘You’re not trying enough.’ They gave me even more diagnoses, so I worked on them a lot. But nothing helped. It made me hopeless. Now, I know I was working on the wrong disorders.”
“Anxiety can look like I’m happy and having a great time, but my brain never stops thinking of what I didn’t accomplish.”
“If I could go back in time, I’d tell myself not to read about what my baby might NOT be able to do. She’s inquisitive and full of fun and mischief, and she LOVES broccoli. She is my inspiration.”
“I deleted the hashtag, and it hasn’t gone back up since. On the same day, I posted about autistic pride. I was still afraid. Maybe if I pretend I don’t have autism, it won’t be an issue in my professional life.”
‘Are you sure it’s her?’ I hoped he was wrong, but I knew he wasn’t. The drive there was a rainy, tear-filled blur. ‘She’s making donuts…’”
“‘Andie is acting strange.’ Our baby’s left arm and leg were rhythmically jerking. After an hour, she’d not stopped seizing. ‘Call 911!’ In a matter of minutes, our future shattered.”
“Our children, used to a new baby every year, were just as excited as we were.”
“My parents freaked out. ‘You’ll ruin your family.’ I was only doing what my mother had done for my parents. We hugged so hard when those two pink lines finally appeared.”
