“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.”
‘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’
‘I saw with my own two eyes, gay little boys almost beaten to death. I was young and accepted the church’s truth as my own.’: Man raised homophobic says ‘God taught me to love everyone, and I will do just that’
“I was taught that only women and men were meant to be in holy matrimony, and same sex marriage is a sin. I was raised to be homophobic, but I will raise my kids to love everyone. If I’m going to inspire change, I have to start with myself.”
‘I met another woman coming out of the office, bawling her eyes out. She, too, was going home to wait for that all too important phone call.’: Couple battles infertility for years, ‘It’s a horrible waiting game’
“I literally sat in my car down the road, screaming and crying for at least half an hour. They found I had stage 4 Endometriosis. Well, no wonder I had been having such painful cycles! Babies came easy to us. But not this time. Not for my second marriage.”
‘I’ve had 9 children, by myself. One passed away. I’m expecting, but I have no idea when my ‘due date’ is.’: Single mom fosters multiple children and has open adoption, ‘It’s all on me, baby!’
“I came to foster parenting by accident. Some women dream of having big families and becoming mothers, but not me. In fact, the older I got, the more sure I was that I never wanted children. Then my plot twist arrived. I had never seen a more beautiful baby in my whole life.”
‘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 know you’re thinking, ‘Wow she is really trashing IVF and praising adoption,’ and to that, I’d say, HELL YES, I AM!’: After adoption woman wishes she could travel back in time, ‘I would tell her to stop’
“This is a true story and I’m here to say what others might not. I was there. I wanted to love and be loved unconditionally.”
‘He’ll claim his place on your hip for a while, then in your heart forever. I thank God every day for choosing me to mother a baby boy.’: Boy mom says ‘nothing can prepare you for this kind of joy’
“Expect mud, expect stink. Expect him to grow wild and fast, expect to raise your voice. But most of all, expect more love than you could ever imagine. Truth is, nothing can ever really prepare you for this kind of joy and calling.”
‘No one has tried to fill your role. No one can love us the way you did. You were the GOAT. Not a day goes by we don’t celebrate you.’: Man pens letter to late wife on first birthday in heaven
“You’ve been in Heaven for 75 days now, and there is this pandemic thing going on. Yep, right after you went to be with Jesus, the entire country shut down. On really ‘important days,’ like today, I find myself searching for you, even more than usual.”
‘I can’t hear.’ I tell her to write. She gives me a dismissive hand wave.’: Deaf woman reminds us to be patient during the pandemic
“The tears fall. She gives me the wave off with her hand saying, ‘Nevermind.’ I’ve faced frustration, but never like this.”
‘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.”
‘He may not make it through the next hour.’ I didn’t want to answer the phone. I just had to get to the NICU.’’ Mom mourns the loss of adopted 8-day-old micro-preemie, ‘His tiny footprints are forever stamped on my heart’
“The mama we had matched with for adoption, though not due for 16 weeks, was in crisis. I cried uncontrollably. All I saw was the most beautiful, amazing baby boy, fighting to live.”
‘Omgoodness, Becky did you just Google my problem?’ I’d been trying to figure something out. Almost right away, she sent all the info.’: Mom says ‘find a friend that will Google your problem for you’
“As a full-time-working-stay-at-home-home-schooling-mom-wife-teacher-writer, we can get so incredibly busy and burdened. Sometimes we need people to listen to us vent or shed some light for us.”
‘Is everything alright, bud?’ He had an announcement: ‘Your dad came back to you in the form of your son.’: Boy says late grandpa is now new little brother, ‘I have never felt more peaceful’
“My father had passed away. ‘What do you mean?’ I was a little confused. ‘When he was in your tummy, grandpa played trains with me in my room. He said he was going to be my baby brother now so we could play trains together all of the time soon.’ I stood there, truly taken aback.”
‘We used an anonymous donor to form our family despite having additional frozen embryos we could have continued trying.’: Mom of 3 hopes ‘my boys are proud one day’
“There have been decisions Steph and I have made as parents that we know our children may have opinions on. If one day my children question them, I hope my heart is proud to have raised children who can think for themselves.”
‘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.”
‘The affair was virtual and emotional, but that’s it. You reported all my mistakes to your family. I wanted to be perfect for you.’: Woman begs for forgiveness after ’emotional’ affair
“Nothing can or should justify why I engaged in a virtual online affair with someone else while being with you. I am explaining what led me to doing it, and why it meant nothing to me. It’s here, in this moment, that I broke and made the worst decision in my life.”
‘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.”
‘It was like searching Tinder for a threesome without any of the sex, and I was terrified. We looked for women who closely resembled me most.’: Woman shares insight into infertility, ‘I truly would have stopped at nothing’
“She was my understudy. A woman I would never know. We didn’t want to have to explain why I gave birth to a half Asian baby. By this point, we had spent SO MUCH MONEY, and to walk away without trying one more option seemed like we just blew it all for nothing.”
‘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.”
‘My anxiety feels unmanageable.’ I feel my entire body get tight. I get incredibly tense, from my legs to my head.’: Autism mom explains anxiety during COVID-19, ‘Lack of control can feel paralyzing’
“I get defensive about anything and everything. I immediately feel like everything is my fault and there is no way I can be enough. I turn into someone who is unrecognizable to the people who know me, as I’m simply the worst version of myself.”
Your Husband Is Funny—Don’t Forget To Notice
“Somewhere between the dirty laundry and dishes, I stopped laughing at his jokes. I watched my husband come alive under the appreciation of another woman.”
‘I wonder what she would have thought of all the hoarding. That’s not how they did it back then. She made reusing aluminum foil fun.’: Woman worries about her generation, ‘We have a bold task ahead’
“I can remember my grandmother’s engaging and sometimes horrific stories of sacrifice. She could cook big feed the masses until all of our buttons burst. And she did this with a very limited fixed income. No part of a chicken roast was ever wasted.”