“Then that fateful phone call. Oh, how that phone call would change our lives. We were contemplating what empty nesting would look like. And then Amie happened. She had a way of wrapping everyone around her little finger. Quickly, we realized Amie wasn’t like our other babies. She already had two open heart surgeries, and there were more in the future. Amie was feisty, and had a personality as big as the sky.”
‘We lost our precious Amie. We knew surgery was coming. She was in the best hands. Try as he might, we lost her.’: Mom’s emotional journey to adopting their ‘fierce, spunky’ daughter, only to lose her 2 months ago
‘When can I see the baby?’ New moms hear over and over, before she’s even left the hospital.’: Mom reminds us to ‘nurture the mother’ post-delivery
“Before she’s had a chance to sleep. Before she’s showered off the blood. ‘When can I come see the baby?’ Her estrogen and progesterone levels are plummeting. She’s shaky. Hot, cold, sweaty, and weak. Her crotch is swollen, puffy. She has stretch marks, hair loss, acne, blurry vision, and dry eyes. When you walk into her house, look at HER. Admire the baby, sure. But don’t forget to nurture the mother.”
How My ‘Goofy Joke’ Connected Me To My Little Brother Before Going To College
One day, I decided I wanted to do something to mess with him. So, I ran to my room and threw together the most embarrassing outfit I could find. I wanted to make my little brother smile while I still can.”
‘I was scared of losing my mom. I was 12. I didn’t want anyone to think I was trying to get attention.’: Daughter suffers in silence after mom’s cancer, Alzheimer’s diagnoses, says ‘your struggle doesn’t make you weak’
“I heard her whispering on the phone. It sounded like something was going on, but she was trying to hide it. I was completely caught off guard. She had found a lump in her breast. I immediately asked her if she was going to die. I never told anyone about any of it.”
‘Please Mom, I don’t want to leave. I promise I’ll be good. I don’t like myself very much.’: Sister’s heartbreaking tribute to her late big brother who society deemed ‘the bad kid’
“I’d watched life treat my brother Glen so unfairly. I wanted so badly for something to go right for him. One night, he was extremely upset. My father picked my mom and I up. Glen called us to see where we were, and I still remember her last words to him. ‘We’re giving you space for the night, but we want to help you, Glen.’ The next morning, we were greeted by my dog at the front door. She was crying.”
‘They grow up fast. You’ll miss this someday.’ REALLY? I’m going to miss being tortured by my 2 kids wrestling like bear cubs in a grocery store?’: Mom says it’s okay to ‘not love every part of motherhood’
“I was at the grocery store today with my kids when I said a little too loudly, NOT in my mom voice, ‘I love you, but you’re REALLY annoying me.’ A young couple walked by, with no kids. ‘Well, that was brutally honest.’ I was judgingly told I’d miss this part of motherhood. I promise, I won’t. And it’s totally OK to tell your kids they’re being annoying when you’ve broken up 19 fights before you even got to the store.”
‘If I die, our kids won’t remember me.’ My husband excused himself to the bathroom, literally sick to his stomach.’: Woman mistakes breast cancer for ‘clogged milk duct,’ says chemo ‘almost killed her’
“The ultrasound tech brought me a box of tissues, tears welling up in her eyes. ‘What are the tissues for?’ I asked, confused. ‘There’s an 80% chance it’s cancer.’ I was completely shell-shocked. Numb. I couldn’t get out of the room and building fast enough. While others continued living their lives, I was stuck, sick. My life was put on hold.”
‘Children are so much more than test scores. My boy is NOT defined by the grade on his paper.’: Mom says ‘school is not of highest importance,’ more concerned with how son ‘treats others’
“I gave my 10-year-old a math test today. I watched him pour every bit of effort in his little body into that test. Then, with a deep breath, he handed it back. ‘It’s an 89.’ Immediately, his eyes filled with tears. He’d done his best and still came up short. I looked at him, then back at the paper. And then I ripped it in half. Children are so much more than test scores or a reading level. They’re so much more than the box we try to mold them into.”
‘My mom still waves goodbye to me. She stands out on her driveway and waves.’: Daughter ‘thinks of her mom’ when grieving how fast her own child are growing up
“She still cares about me like she did when I was a kid. She can’t help herself. As I’ve gotten older, my mom still does the same motherly things she’s always done, now for me and my babies. I love how precious she is to me.”
Let’s Hear It For The Friends Who Don’t Make This Friend Thing Complicated
“I won’t always be a phone call away. Sometimes, I leave my phone inside so it’s not a distraction. I won’t always be there the exact moment you need me. I really try, but sometimes I’m fighting my own demons. I won’t give you my undivided attention, but I’ll listen to you vent between pushing babies on swings. We may not be planning many girl’s nights or remembering to text each other back, but anytime you cross my mind, I’m thankful for you.”
‘You’ve been burned. You’ve been talked bad about. You’ve been left out.’: Woman insists this is ‘your life,’ so ‘don’t wait’ for someone to include you
“You’ve felt like because one group didn’t want you, something must be terribly screwed up with you. But it’s not true. That ain’t nothing but dirty, nasty lies. I believed them for a long time myself.”
‘This little girl needed parents who’d love her no, matter what. Our opportunity was staring us in the face.’: Gay dads adopt ‘tiny, 5-pound, perfect’ baby girl after initial doubts of being ‘enough’ for her
“I think most people envision ‘the call’ as an instantaneously joyous occasion, the fulfillment of a dream. For us, it was a little more nuanced. A birthmother due in 2 weeks had chosen us, but there were potential health risks with the baby and the pregnancy. We didn’t expect a call this early. But less than 2 weeks later, we took her home at 24-hours old.”
‘I showered and saw where my wife wiped away steam to see our baby in the bassinet.’: Man praises stay-at-home wife, says her hard work ‘does not go unnoticed’
“I literally just sat there, stared at the glass, and smiled. She can’t even shower without caring for someone else’s needs. My wife doesn’t get to clock out. She doesn’t get the satisfaction of seeing a check deposited for her hard work. This may be just a fogged-up piece of glass to some, but to me it means so much more. It’s the little things like this that don’t go unnoticed.”
‘Explain this.’ It was printed copies of every text I’d exchanged with my previous girlfriend.’: Single dad’s harrowing experience dating a narcissist, urges ‘even the strong can succumb to the cunningness of this evil’
“She had brainwashed me. She made me go through my social media accounts to explain my relationship with every female friend I had. If they didn’t meet her criteria, they needed to be deleted. My girlfriend ruthlessly pounded away at me with accusations of not being honest. It was torture. We would stay up all night arguing, the sun would rise, and I would go to work. She was obsessed with it.”
‘I don’t know who you are, but I know I love you.’ The mother of my son has no clue who I am.’: Father realizes he’d be raising his son ‘alone’ after wife suffers strokes that erased her memory
“When I first met my wife, it was love at first sight. Looking back on that night brings back great memories, but for my wife, those memories are gone. A quick trip to the hospital turned into an absolute nightmare. We found out she had preeclampsia, but by then, it was too late. ‘Steve, this is not easy to say, but she suffered a severe brain injury. She has lost all her memories, long and short,’ the doctor told me.”
‘I was too scared to touch my own son. You gave us hope when we had none.’: NICU mom pens ‘ long overdue’ thank you letter to nurses who helped son survive
“It’s been 7 years, so this ‘thank you’ has been a long-time coming. I wasn’t trying to be rude. I was just scared.”
‘I greeted her at the door with tears in my eyes. We couldn’t look past the horror of that day.’: Young widow becomes ‘soul sisters’ with late husband’s cousin after witnessing traumatic death together
“A stray bullet killed my husband 3 days after I delivered our son. His cousin Shelby was holding my baby boy moments before he died. She started sleeping with me that night and over the next year moved into the room with my son and I. For us, this PTSD was life. We couldn’t see past the blood, hear past the screams. Our brains were frozen in time, and the only way for us to climb out, was to be with each other.”
‘How did I end up in a wheelchair from a bite? By my early 20’s, I was completely bedridden.’: Woman details ‘loss of faith’ while searching for Lyme disease diagnosis
“I didn’t leave my bedroom for 7 months or my house for 11 months. Once every two weeks I was carried from the bed to the bath to be washed and changed into Pjs, then back to bed. This was my routine for 7 months.”
‘Why did you cut her?! She didn’t give you permission to do that.’ My blood boiled. He just stared.’: Doctor performs episiotomy on mother without her permission during childbirth because he had ‘somewhere to be at 7 p.m.’
“Snnniiipppp. My doctor used scissors to cut me open ‘down there’ to make it easier to push the baby out. ‘What did you do?!’ I asked the male, 50-year-old doctor, with fear in my voice. Even the nurses paused. Just 30 minutes before, my doctor told me, ‘I have somewhere to be at 7 o’ clock, so you better be able to push this baby out soon.’ My husband’s rage was rising. I squeezed his hand. ‘We can’t do this now.’”
‘I escaped the house from the second story window. I called off the wedding.’: Woman celebrates ‘triumph’ of escaping abusive partner by rocking dress on would-be wedding day
“He told me to cut my two closest friends out of my life. It felt amazing to wear my beautiful engagement ring, but I was crumbling on the inside. The life I so desperately wanted to live was never going to exist. It took 4 years to realize it.”
‘I used to work with a woman who hated me. HATED ME. She turned around in frustration: she did not like me. Not one bit.’: Woman realizes ‘life’s too short’ to waste time on mean people, learns it’s best to ‘let them go’
“Did I mention how she was kind of mean even when we were friends and I was always a little unsure if I could trust her, and some part of me was always concerned that maybe I should have run away as fast as I could in the opposite direction before she stabbed me while I was looking away? When it’s time to, you let them go.”
‘Her husband found them together. He died fighting for another man’s wife, when he should’ve been home fighting for us.’: Woman learns to find her ‘worth’ after husband murdered by his lover’s spouse
“My husband whispered, ‘I have got to run to the drug store.’ It was clear this ‘quick trip’ would turn into a night of me wondering where he was. ‘I beg you. Don’t leave. Stay here. We can figure this out. I love you.’ He turned away as he muttered, ‘No, don’t tell me what to do.’ The next thing I knew, I was awakened by 3 strangers pounding on my front door. I got a lot more than one answer that night. My husband was having an affair.”
‘He looks like he’s sleeping, he looks peaceful.’ The police officer told us the divers found a boy’s body.’: Sister recalls baby brother’s tragic drowning, urges ‘you can never be prepared in this situation’
“We began frantically looking in the houseboat, in cupboards, under beds. I called out his name, begging him to stop playing games, hoping he was just playing hide ‘n’ seek. Looking over the river, it was so calm, but you couldn’t see a thing under the surface – it was just too murky. My mom came to the realization that my father needed to be called, to be told his son is missing. ‘It’s going to be okay; we are going to be okay,’ my mom repeated, trying to put on a brave face.”
‘Don’t move!’ He shot me a second time, and left. I sure wasn’t going to die without a fight.’: Woman attacked by ‘close knit’ EMT coworker suffering from PTSD is ‘thankful’ to still be here
“He texted me saying he was going to pop in to say, ‘Hi.’ I was laying on the floor watching TV when he entered. The next thing I knew, I was holding my head with my hands and screaming. I thought he had had a PTSD episode and shot me while thinking I was someone else. I crawled outside and knocked on the neighbor’s door. ‘Please call 911,’ I asked him.”
‘The father apologized. ‘Mind if I try something?’ By the end of the flight, it clicked. He was astounded.’: Dad ‘nearly cries’ after speech pathologist teaches autistic son to communicate on plane for the first time
“On my flight, I sat next to a father and his autistic son. Before it even took off, there was screaming, hitting, grabbing. The father repeatedly apologized, but did little else. He warned it would be a difficult flight. ‘Not to worry.’ I had experience with minimally verbal kiddos. By the end of it, his son was changed.”