“All I say is ‘No.’ I’m tired of my kids’ disappointment. I’ll take ANY version of normal I can get my hands on. I bought school uniforms in June. I love summer, but I’m ready to exit the ride.”
‘I blurted, ‘I’m already ready for school to start!’ I’d forgotten how to act normal in public.’ Without hope I’m lost.’: Mom says of extended summer, ‘I’ve had plenty, thanks’
‘Congrats!’ No! You don’t understand! I felt awful wishing I wasn’t pregnant. I had one test, and I took it. Life would be much easier.’: Pro-life mom adjusts attitude after surprise pregnancy
“He asked, ‘Are you?’ Softly I said, ‘I am.’ I was shaking, crying, and hyperventilating. The baby I wasn’t sure I even WANTED, might not survive. All while thinking, ‘Life would be so much easier without being pregnant.’ I don’t swear much, but I definitely swore in that moment.”
‘We won’t be needing any donuts after all.’ I didn’t yell. I didn’t make a scene. 2 miles down the road, I turned the van around.’: Man shares confrontation with exhausted worker, ‘I was rude’
“My flesh convinced me this was the time for me to be a patriot. I looked at her straight in the face and told her she was rude. I left. The same woman was standing there; I walked right up to her.”
‘Four a.m. Back again huh? I’m still recovering from last night. This is no longer my safe place.’: Mom of Autistic children pens letter to sleepless nights, ‘I’m not here to welcome you’
“I’m certain I will end up in an ambulance, perhaps in another 7-11 parking lot as my husband dials 911. The panic will take over and I will feel death is imminent. I’ll be left wondering, once again, if I’m dying. This is my prison.”
‘I’m happy for you, but worried. You think your baby won’t survive. You need to hit the pause button.’: Mom gives support to other pregnant women after loss, ‘The moment is yours’
“You’re happy about being pregnant, but also scared it could end. We know how swiftly things can go from life to death.”
‘DING DING DING.’ His heart rate dropped. All of the tests were negative. He was known as the ‘mystery baby.’: Woman births baby with Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome, ‘Our lives would never be the same’
“The doctor laid him on my chest and instant panic came over my face. He was a shade of blue. I had done this five times before. I knew what a newborn should look like. He began to throw up and for a newborn, it was a lot! Why was this happening?”
Dear Parents, Remember Teachers Are Humans Too
“I am watching my teacher friends talk about making wills. These are not the conversations we normally have in July. We are not healthcare workers or first responders. And for the love of God, do not give them fever reducers so you can send them to school.”
‘Something ain’t right.’ She NEEDED HELP. The response was, ‘Sorry, but insurance won’t pay any longer.’: Widower lost wife after childbirth due to negligence, ‘Her name will ring forever’
“She was a wreck, but the nurse came in with the news it was time for us to pack up and go. I urged the doctor to keep us there. ‘Insurance won’t pay.’ I can still feel the wind from doctors running past me, responding to the ‘code black.’ It haunts me.”
‘At 11-years-old, I coded on the table. ‘You’re on your second soul.’: Chronic pain warrior with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome suffers stroke, finds community, ‘It’s about being there for each other’
“My first stroke was at 11 weeks old. By the time I was 4, I had three open-heart surgeries. Once, I made a list of things I have tried over the years for my pain. It was three pages long. You name it, I’ve probably had it.”
‘I’ve told you I’m a virgin a million times!’ She slammed on the brakes. ‘We need to find an adoption agency.’: 16-year-old birth mom pursues open adoption, ‘He deserved better than me’
“They would take him home and raise him in all the ways I couldn’t. It all seemed to happen really quickly. This is when regret and doubt in my decision came crashing down on me. He is mine. He was mine for 40 hours.”
‘I drove 11 hours with my babies. I just needed to feel my ‘home.’ I wanted to laugh together like the world isn’t burning.’: Mom talks about finding the positive during a pandemic
“I needed to taste my mama’s pancakes. I just needed to feel my ‘home,’ and not through the blue light of a screen. I didn’t realize what a release it would be to just pull up in a familiar driveway, knock on a door, and have it open wide.”
‘Her brain doesn’t look normal.’ The odds weren’t in our favor. There was a 1% chance she would live six months.’: Baby born with Semilobar Holoprosencephaly defies the odds, ‘She blows us away’
“The doctor saw a spot on our baby’s brain that didn’t look quite right. Her brain had not completely divided into two complete hemispheres. We went from planning on welcoming a little girl into our family to planning a funeral.”
‘I’m trying to hold on for you and the boys. I’m so tired,’ he said. We had so much hope.’: Widow asks friends and family to write letters to twin sons from late husband, ‘They will know how great their father was’
“When I was seven months pregnant, Justin’s health rapidly declined. ‘I don’t know how much strength I have left.’ I think he knew it was time. I wish he wrote letters to the boys, but we never lived a day thinking he would die. I think that was the best way to live.”
’Each appointment, we were given no hope. ‘He will have severe disabilities.’ If it was not for my amazing doctor, I believe Henry and I would not be here today,: Woman gives birth to baby with hydrocephalus and L1 Syndrome.
“Our road came to a halt soon after. 1 in 30,000 is what we were told. We became extremely concerned. We begged the doctors for answers and we felt defeated.”
‘Did you know you are pregnant?’ she said. ‘Umm…what?’ The 6 hours I spent on a stretcher in the back hallway were a blur.’: Couple details secondary infertility battles, ‘I’ll never stop hoping’
“Nine months later, and just one week after moving clear across the country, I found myself in an Uber heading to the local emergency room. The kid was a giant. I still have PTSD.”
‘Just unhook our boy, and let us hold him.’ The feeling is indescribable. Things became a blur.’: Woman has baby at 23 weeks, shares grief journey, ‘He’s our little superhero’
‘I woke up feeling off. When I wiped, there was blood. He arrived so tiny, so transparent. We were terrified. I couldn’t cope with being away from him.”
‘Mom said, ‘You aren’t coming home.’ My sexuality was a sin. I was punished for making eye contact. The chance I’d pull through was slim.’: Woman survives accident, cancer, ‘I’m ALIVE for the first time’
“I was topping the scales at over 650 pounds. I pulled up and asked him if he was okay. A rush of cars started coming and they weren’t slowing down. Then I heard brakes screeching, the glass breaking. I flew through the air. I’d have to have my entire tongue removed.”
‘We’ve dealt with lice, super lice, lies, fighting, suspension, sexting, smoking, vaping, and drugs. It wasn’t our plan, but God had other plans.’: After infertility, mom fosters 10 kids
“I remember yelling at God in my minivan after another depressing doctor’s appointment. This wasn’t our plan. ‘Are you going to take me?’ His room was concrete blocks, no outlets, and a window so high you couldn’t see out.”
‘No heartbeat,’ was what I sent. I couldn’t form other sentences, even with my fingers. I was numb.’: Woman shares miscarriage, encourages others not to suffer in silence
“My first phone call ended in, ‘What just happened? ‘It’s hard to swallow I’m not his first wife, and I will not have his first child. I was blind to it, because I didn’t want to read the sad stories.”
‘I’ve been an educator for years. I work for an amazing district. Yet, I have no clue what to do for my own kids. I’m struggling.’: Mom says, ‘Let’s teach kids lessons about life’
“I have a limited amount of energy, and the world doesn’t care. It’s time to stop endlessly worrying about details we have no control over instead, let’s teach our kids.”
‘We want an infant to seize. MY infant. How terrible is that? I hyperventilate into my husband’s chest.’: Mom loses baby with rare genetic mutation, ‘He was pure magic and love’
“And then she says it. IT. ‘I’m worried.’ I know what this means. This means things are not good. THIS IS NEVER GOOD. I refuse to let any person touch my sleeping baby.”
‘He sounded congested all the time. ‘He’s just building his immune system.’ This cold landed him in the PICU, intubated.’: Mom advocating for Spinal Muscular Atrophy says, ‘Every single thing is a battle’
“He was always sick. When the doctor was listening to his lungs, he noticed his tongue was twitching. They stuck a probe into his muscles. ’Don’t google the disease.’ Of course, I immediately googled it. I shouldn’t have.”
‘I felt DRUNK. I had to spit in a cup two or three times daily and I could barely walk straight. ‘You have a baseball-sized tumor in your head.’: Health coach battles brain cancer and experimental surgery
“I was a complete and total workaholic-girl-boss with my own business. I started noticing headaches often and having spit-up episodes. Part of me thought it was anxiety. These episodes, I found out, were seizures.”
‘This is the first time I’ve seen something like this.’ We were starting to lose hope. What was going on with our baby?’: Couple advocates for son’s rare diagnosis, Cutis Laxa Type 3, ‘He’s a warrior’
“He was born full-term, weighing just two pounds. He gained five pounds. Then the seizures started. All we saw were tubes, PICC lines, and NG tubes. We weren’t getting any answers.”
‘Xander may only have one or two years to live.’ We were completely blindsided. I’m not supposed to outlive my son.’: Mom feels ‘helpless’ through son’s heart transplant and liver cancer, ‘I can’t give up’
“A year after his transplant, Xander started throwing up. I rushed him to the E.R. because I thought he was facing organ rejection. The words were crippling. I wanted to grab the cancer with my bare hands and fight it to death.”