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.
“It was the happiest day of our lives, yet we had to grieve the loss of our future children. I have never loved another woman’s bump as much as I loved hers.”
“Why does EVERYTHING have sleeves? The feeling of being inadequate hit me like a freight train. I didn’t sleep. I didn’t eat. ‘How are we supposed to raise a child with no arms?’”
“She let me sleep when she got up and wanted breakfast. She shut my door, then turned on his show and got him a drink. I wonder if she knows the guilt I felt.”
“‘Do you own a TV?’ If I had a dollar for every time we were asked that, we would be rich. We have days when we don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but that’s the best part of having a big family.”
“If they ask me about something, I will simply tell them. Only the most bad*ss people I know allow themselves to be vulnerable.”
“During the exam, the doctor asked me casually, ‘Have you been having sexual intercourse?’ The shame was hard to bear. I didn’t like the life I had chosen, so I tried to leave it.”
“I take it for granted until I am the one sitting in the courthouse waiting an hour for a 10-minute hearing. There is still so much I cannot make up for.”
“I am rooting and fighting for them to leave me and for my heart to be ripped apart. It is priceless, heartbreaking, and beautiful.”
“I let bitterness sink in, and I was always ready to battle. We started new careers, had beautiful babies, and traveled, but we were too busy to realize we hadn’t dealt with our need to heal.”
“I didn’t want to seem like I was crazy. Believe me, I hate my autism as much as you do, but it is also a part of me.”
