“Not even leaving to go to the restroom, I didn’t want to miss a moment if she woke up. She never did. I left that day after saying hello and goodbye to the one person I couldn’t reach. It was such a rush to get up there and such a let down when leaving, and all within a few hours of each other.”
“She sat on the end of the bed and cried.”
“Because a mama’s job is to keep it together. Herself and everything else, all the time. She bends for everyone, but must always pull herself up before she breaks.”
“My food is ‘spicy.’ The Easter bunny, Santa, and the tooth fairy are real. I don’t know why the annoying toy louder than a blow horn suddenly doesn’t work anymore. No, we don’t have batteries to replace them either.”
“We sat at a bar booth, ordered wine and split food. We lingered longer and we talked, about more than a day’s worth of usual. And for a few minutes, it felt like before, when ‘us’ meant the two of us, and not the four of us.”
“I imagined adult interactions and a brand new enthusiasm for human contact. I imagined being defined by my career. Then, just as quickly, I imagined being defined by a lack of one.”
“Your self-worth doesn’t revolve around how clean your house is, how many activities you do with your kids, or how many meals you make from scratch.”
“While it’s everything we’ve wanted for so long, it does have its challenges.”
“Those moments that may seem ordinary, or even exhausting to you now, will someday stand out in your mind as incredibly precious memories and not at all ordinary.”
“I began bleeding so heavily I passed out and my husband called 911. My blood pressure was so low they wanted to take me via ambulance to the hospital. We had already accumulated enough bills and were paying on the loans for all our procedures. We were doubly blessed.”
