‘I ran through the door screaming, ‘Joe!’ My heart sunk. My girl was telling me goodbye, I just didn’t know it.’: Baby passes due to Miller Dieker syndrome, ‘It’s not her death that changed me, but her very existence’

“The hardest thing was breaking our son’s heart. After shedding tears, he proudly wore his ‘Big Brother’ shirt the next day. He told me, ‘Even if sissy looks funny, I’m going to love her just the same. And if anyone makes fun of her, I’ll tell them she is who she is and we love her.’”

‘Turn on the lights. What’s wrong with my baby?’ He thrashed in my arms and went limp. Our perfect boy was unconscious.’: Baby boy saves 3 lives after passing from aneurysm, ‘There is beauty to be found in the ashes’

“Finn threw up in my arms before the paramedics arrived, but I never put him down. A social worker and chaplain ushered us into a small waiting room and told us, ‘This occuring was a 1 in 100 million chance.’ Something in me knew this was the end. I could feel my heart ripping from my chest. We were not giving up on our boy.”

‘She had tubes down her throat. She immediately grabbed my hand and wrote ‘I (heart) U’ with her finger in the palm.’: Woman grieves mothers death, ‘I lost her 10 days before I graduated college’

“She was so upset I was at the hospital versus at college studying for my final exams for my senior year. She kept writing ‘I am okay’ on a notepad. She held on a few moments longer. My last visual memory is her sitting up, waving goodbye because she was doing ‘better.’ I can’t help but think that was her plan all along.”

‘I told him two men shot you, for no reason. ‘Do you wear sneakers. In heaven?’ It’s too big. He can’t swallow it.’: Mom of autistic son wonders how to take action for Ahmaud Arbery

“I don’t know what it’s like to watch behind me when I run, or worry someone may shoot me. I am a middle-aged white woman living in suburbia. I don’t know what it’s like to be you, but I do have a vulnerable child—not for the color of his skin, but for the invisible wiring inside his brain.”

‘Forgotten lunch boxes and sweatshirts remain. Untold stories, empty playgrounds. The desks are still full, but empty of the one thing that made them come alive each day.’: Mom says return to school will be ‘a day of celebration’

“The artwork on the walls is full of shamrocks and gold, rainbows, and leprechauns. Spring was right within their grasp. They said, ‘I’ll see you in a little while.’ A little while has gone on longer than anyone imagined it would, but in that classroom, time stands still.”

‘Can you help with the chores?’ You’d have thought I just ruined my stepson’s life. He balked and resisted, often leaving behind his dirty dishes.’: Stepmom says ‘parenting is a process of growing’

“Despite being reminded, he usually forgot in his mad dash to grab his keys and rush out the door. And that stepmom? Well, she got really annoyed by it. I worried he’d never learn the value of taking care of things, the value of helping others out, or being aware of his surroundings.”

‘He’d point out my stretch marks and the physical things he wanted to change about me. ‘I’m sorry I said that, but you bring it out of me.’: Abuse survivor urges ‘it’s not your fault’

“He’d tell me what girls he thought was hot, who he’d sleep with. He had no problem gawking at other girls in front of me. He said he felt unimportant and that I gave him no attention, even though my eyes were always on him and he had his attention elsewhere. I was convinced I was unloveable.”

‘The same people who were created from sex are the same reason why you’ll never have it again.’: Mom hilariously points out the ironies of motherhood

“You yell at your children to just ‘listen, for goodness sakes,’ but can tune those monkeys out like it’s nobody’s business. You gain 50 pounds and yet you’ve never sat down to have a proper meal ever! You spend all day waiting for those stinkers to go bed, but when they fall asleep, you stare at their little faces, your heart so full of love.”

‘That night I cried in my driveway for a child. 10 minutes later, I got a call. ‘Can you take in 1-year old twin boys?’: 26-year-old single foster mom says ‘I was called for plans bigger than myself’

“There I was, a single 26-year-old woman. I can’t relate to abuse. I can’t relate to being moved to 5 different foster homes in a 4-month time frame. I can’t relate to being homeless and sleeping in a car. But what I can do is wrap my arms around them, hold them, and tell them their story doesn’t end here.”

‘You didn’t like your sister. ‘Meh, at least she won’t be here long.’ I worried about how we would ever navigate this growing chasm between you.’: Mom thankful for growing bond between siblings, ‘What a privilege it is to watch this friendship blossom’

“You picked on her. You were extra rough and rambunctious as a toddler. You were jealous. It was hard. I made it a point to explain…over and over again… if you were on the same side, at least you’d always have a friend. I’m awestruck when I see you protecting her from harm.”

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