“‘You may not be able to lift your right arm above your shoulder again. It could cause damage to your vocal cords. And you may experience numbness on the right side of your face.’ The tears I had been holding back came pouring down my face.”
‘There’s nothing like getting ready in the morning, wondering if your tumor is cancerous or giving you permanent nerve damage.’: Woman shares her struggles with nerve sheath tumor
‘After 6 years of battling infertility and finally getting my miracle baby, COVID-19 almost killed me.’: New mom recounts postpartum COVID, ‘She was the one who kept me going’
“I was saved by a nurse who must have been a mom. I begged her to help me, and told her I have a three-day-old baby at home. She assured me she would get me to my baby.”
‘Mom, Jeremy is doing some really bad drugs.’ Time stopped. I was dumbfounded.’: After son’s fatal heroin overdose, family start non-profit to help others battling addiction
“I started the guessing game: Benzos? No. Acid? No. Mushrooms? No. Bath salts? No. I remember pausing and feeling a chill go through me. Heroin? Yes. ‘Daniel, are you telling me that Jeremy is using heroin?’ Yes.”
‘I remember coming home from school, seeing you on the couch. You didn’t ask me how my day was. I get it now, mom.’: Mom battling depression, suicidal ideations says ‘your illness doesn’t make you a bad mom’
“It’s not that you didn’t want to get off the couch, it’s that you couldn’t. Your mind was so sick it made you physically unable to function. It made you so tired the most simple tasks felt like climbing Mt. Everest.”
‘The statistics were extremely stacked against me. Then, I was adopted.’: Former foster youth shares healing journey, ‘You are not responsible for what happened to you as a child’
“I experienced the stability and safe love I’d longed for years. And even though I tried to push it away, they never left me. My family was relentless in their commitment to loving me and helping me heal. No matter what I did – and I did a lot of things – they loved me.”
‘I’ve had their adorable sticky hands grabbing at me for 12 hours. I just want to sit in a dark room so I can think.’: Introvert mom urges there’s ‘nothing wrong’ with how you recharge
“It’s okay if being around your little ones drains you just as much as it makes you happy.”
‘I stayed in bed for hours of the day, didn’t eat for hours at a time, and lost a lot of weight. I felt like I didn’t matter to anyone.’: Young woman’s self-love journey started with a break-up
“Now, I always remember I am beautiful the way I am, inside and out. I wish I would’ve known that a long time ago.”
‘They told me, ‘There’s no way you have that. Take an antidepressant.’ I was in horrible pain and no one was listening to me.’: Woman living with chronic pain shares diagnosis journey
“Some days I am so hungry and have a fridge full of food, but I can’t eat it. When I do eat, the pain is so bad I’m curled up in a fetal position for the rest of the night. Then I wake up and I do it all over again.”
‘How can we do this every single week?’ My mama heart just sees needles, pokes, possible surgeries, and pain.’: Duchenne mom shares beauty of ‘running on faith’
“My strength is not what keeps me able to lift my boys, get up multiple times a night, or handle difficult medical situations. My strength is limited, and often my anxious mind depletes nearly all of it. I am not strong, but my faith is.”
‘They looked like they hadn’t eaten in weeks, and they never said a single word. Our training was exactly for this moment.’: Mom shares foster-to-adopt journey, advice for other adopters
“Those frail little boys have learned to ride bikes, scooters, skateboards. Our commitment to them is as if I had given birth to them. There is no difference in our love for them.”