“My name’s Erik, and I’m an alcoholic.”
I Got Sober 5 Years And 110 Pounds Ago
‘We were exactly 6 months from the wedding when she broke the news. They had found a lump in her breast. My mind went blank.’
“It was cancer, and had spread. Here I was, married to the woman I will spend the rest of my life with, worried about how much of this new life my mother would be able to see.”
Before I Became A Mother, I’d Already Labeled Myself As ‘Not Enough’
“When the triplets were born I almost died. I remember feeling like I wasn’t enough, like I failed them because my first moments with them were through FaceTime.”
The Mysterious Illness That Changed My Life
“Hmm. My story. I never know where to begin. Should I reveal the ending at the beginning? Because really, there is no ending when it comes to chronic illness.”
‘I’ve debated on this post for a while but I’ve decided I’d show the hard parts of the aftermath of giving birth, and the ultimate sacrifice mothers make from day one.’: Mom shares candid photo right after birth
“Don’t ever discredit a mother. You don’t know the half. No one told me your belly doesn’t go down immediately. No one told me I’d be bleeding out.”
‘Who are you?’ ‘We are sisters.’ ‘Who am I?’ ‘You are our mom.’ ‘Oh sh*t.’
“Dad is pretending he is asleep but I know he isn’t, because when we arrive next to his recliner, he is smiling. Not in a ‘Nice to see you’ kind of way, but in a ‘How was that quality time you just had with your mother?’ kind of way.”
‘If I count the times I’ve been told not to neglect myself as I need to be there for my son with autism, I would need more than 2 hands and 2 feet. Yesterday, I realized I’m not indestructible.’
“If you ask me whether I’m okay, the answer will be as it always is, ‘I’m okay. I have to be.'”
‘Goodbyes are harder now. When my son left for the military, he was 17. The next time I would see him would be when Chad died.’
“After 1 year, 7 months and 4 days, I got to surprise my son. All was right in the world for 14 hours. And, then it happened. He had to leave. It all came back. Panic. Fear. Tears. Why did he have to go?”
‘I was 29 when I found out I was pregnant with twins. I continued to use every 4-6 hours.’: Addict ‘didn’t want to die a junkie,’ finally gets clean for her children because ‘enough was enough’
“I had gone to Cotillion and Girl Scouts, went to Catholic school and had a family who loved me. Now I was a junkie. One time my mom hid her money in her pillowcase while she slept, and I cut it out with her laying on it. Birds fly, fish swim, and addicts use. That’s what I did. But my kids deserved for me to try.”
‘They choose you, you know. In Heaven.’ He pointed to my swollen belly, my twins inside.’: Mom realizes her children ‘chose’ her after chance encounter with stranger in hospital waiting room
“What I wanted most when I was pregnant? I wanted the fantasy. I didn’t want to know every gory detail. Because sometimes? You just need that one person who says everything is going to be okay.”