“Some days I’m not really sure if I killed my husband or not. I certainly have been accused of it by a handful of people. Family members and close friends have said painful things like, ‘You left him when he needed you most,’ or, ‘He gave up the moment you kicked him out.'”
“How could this be happening when everything had been so normal for the last 34 weeks? Concerned. That word still haunts me. We were almost done with the pregnancy, and to just find out something was abnormal was tough to process.”
“’What if no one accepts our babies?’ Mark looked me right in the eye and said, ‘WE will accept our babies! We will love them just like we would any other baby, and Lyndi will love them both just as much. This is our little family. They will be perfect!’”
“I received my 11th concussion playing volleyball. Previously, I had 10 concussions from child abuse. My comorbidities and symptoms increased to the point I had to take mandatory bed rest.”
“My time in this role of ‘stepmom’ has healed my heart in ways therapy never could.”
“My husband comes home. I vaguely remember saying I had interesting news. He says to me, ‘What news?’ I go, ‘I’M PREGNANT.’ Husband looks at me, hugs me, and says, ‘OK! We are having a kid!’ I then say, ‘BUT it’s identical twins.’ Husband says, ‘Oh sh*t.'”
“I’d racked my brain for all the reasons she was asking. Was she hoping for a different kind of connection than with her autistic brother? A different kind of play experience with her new sibling? Tears welled in my eyes, moved by her matter-of-fact, whole-hearted acceptance.”
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My eyes prickled with tears hearing the suffering in his voice as he cried. The very next day at the hospital, I was asked, ‘Would you like to be his legal guardian?'”
“Before that day, I had not been told my birth mom’s name. After reading her letter, I looked her up online and followed her on Instagram. She instantly messaged me. Growing up, I often wondered what my birth mom would be like, but I never imagined she would be such a beautiful person inside and out.”
“Her foster mom handed Areum to me, and all I could do was thank her, telling her we would meet again one day. Then, holding our daughter, I watched the doors of the elevator slowly close, with tears in my eyes.”
