“I told him I was a long-lost family member. He told me to give him a call so he could help me. I thought he knew what I was going to talk to him about. He did not. He said he grew up in Glendora, she moved away when she was around 40 years old, and he had 2 sisters. I knew it was him.”
‘So uh, yeah, it turns out you’re my sister.’ He never knew his mom was pregnant with me.’: Adopted woman finally finds biological family, realizes she’s walked the same halls with them at church
Dear Kindergarten Teacher, We Must Be Helicopter Parents For Our Son With Congenital Heart Disease
“My wife and I have done everything in our power to do best by him. We trust you will do the same.”
‘There’s something wrong with her!’ My mom looked at my triangular-shaped face.’: Woman with rare form of Dwarfism defies ‘grim’ life expectancy, ‘never gave up’
“My mom was pregnant with twins when doctors quickly realized I was growing a lot slower and smaller. Being a nurse, she knew diagnosis was grim. My dad got a call from my mom saying her water broke and he needed to get back to the hospital as fast as he could. Baby A, which was me, was ready to come out and see the world! Everyone else was not.”
‘I never thought I’d need relationship counseling.’: Wife admits marriage after kids is hard, requires marrying the man who will put ‘you, family’ first
“After children, text messages aren’t butterfly provoking; date nights are few. Stolen kisses become less. When people told me they wanted to get married, I’d say, ‘Why? Everything changes, don’t do it. You lose love.’ I was so wrong.”
‘It wasn’t bullying because she wasn’t picked on. It was almost as crushing – she was ignored.’: Mother urges school kids to reach out to ‘lonely’ students, ‘include them in their circle’
“I spent many nights with her crying in her bed asking me questions I couldn’t answer: ‘Why don’t I have any friends? Why don’t I get invited anywhere? What is wrong with me?’ I had no answers as I laid beside her as she sobbed. As important as it is to teach our children to study, to get good grades, it is also important to teach them to be kind.”
‘She’s so beautiful’. ‘Yeah, but she has cancer.’: Newborn daughter diagnosed with Neuroblastoma 9 days after she was born
“June 26 was the day the doctors told me my second daughter has cancer. 2 days after my second wedding anniversary. 5 days after my 30th birthday. I begged for my 7-year-old to understand why she couldn’t hold baby sister. ‘She’s very sick’ I would say, and my heart ached with guilt.”
‘I gave up. I couldn’t do it any longer. I freaking quit.’: Mother of 3 divorces husband after coming to terms with his ‘addictions’
“Spoiler alert. I left my husband. We are divorced. The relationship is over. Our marriage failed. I had to admit that my husband was an addict. My ability to hide it from everyone was over in the most public of ways. I had to tell a police officer that my husband was an addict after he finished taking pictures of the handprints, cuts, grass stains and rug burns that were all over my body.”
‘He looked at me and said, ‘You’re pregnant.’ I chuckled and said, ‘That’s not part of the plan.’: Mom overcomes ‘guilt’ about not enjoying pregnancy to embrace the joy of Motherhood
“A few weeks after our honeymoon I started feeling ill. I couldn’t place my symptoms and chalked it up to some sort of virus. This was the beginning of our first ‘plot twist.’ A little advice never take your first pregnancy test when your home alone. I’ve never cried like that in my whole life. Those two lines showed up before the minute was even up. I took another. Yup, still pregnant.”
‘I hope they’ll see a mother who spoke up. I hope they see a woman who got married but still maintained her identity.’: Mom reflects on what she hopes her children ‘see’ in her as they get older
“I hope they see a woman who just shows up—even if it’s with a messy bun and overstretched yoga pants. A woman who stood, flopped, failed, fell, then rose again when she was ready. She didn’t fake it until she made it, she just came in and was honest about who she was.”
‘Minutes after being born the doctors noticed my skin peeling from just being wrapped in the typical blanket they use with newborns’. Woman describes the pain of living with Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa
“There’s often the misconception my illness is not a big deal and it’s ‘just a skin condition.’ If my illness was as minor as people tend to believe I wouldn’t have lost the ability to walk over the years, or my hands wouldn’t be webbing from years of scarring and friction.”
‘This is what my house looked like for 3 weeks. This is depression.’: Woman explains why depression ‘isn’t you,’ claims there’s ‘light at the end of the tunnel, even if your brain tells you there’s not’
“I had no motivation to brush my teeth, shower. No motivation to play with my kids. I was anxious my husband was going to leave for someone better who had their stuff together. It was me sitting on the couch responding to messages of ‘How are you doing?’ and replying ‘really good’ knowing it was a lie. You need a friend that doesn’t care if your house is a mess because you need to clean your mind before your house. And you need that friend to be you.”
Dear Last Born Child, I’m Sorry For Bringing My B-Game
“There was a time when bedtimes were enforced, when we didn’t allow PB&J as an alternate dinner option every night, and when all movies shown were G-rated. You don’t know what you’re missing because those parents left the building two kids ago.”
‘You now have a high-risk pregnancy.’ I cut her off mid-sentence. ‘Am I high risk, or is my baby high risk?’: Mom receives extremely rare SUA diagnosis 20 weeks into pregnancy
“’Our baby is high risk! My poor husband is used to me being a bit dramatic, but he stayed calm even in this situation, asking me to repeat our diagnosis. ‘SUA, Single Umbilical Artery.’ They said she’ll be small… that’s all I could focus on – she was going to come early.”
‘My best friend was supposed to marry her soulmate. Instead, she spoke her vows at his funeral.’: Woman loses fiancé to ‘work accident’ before wedding, creates touching hashtag to ‘honor’ their love
“It was later on, after an ‘accidental Facebook message’ to the ‘wrong Danny’ that fate would bring them together. 107 days before what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, her wedding day, she got the most heart-stopping phone call. Her fiancé was in an accident. One he wouldn’t make it out alive from.”
‘I’m sorry. Eva won’t make it.’ I sat, waiting for the doctors to stop the bleeding in her brain. The damage was too extensive.’: Mom pens letter to past self 13 months after daughter dies of Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura
“You need to listen to the doctors. You need to breathe. Right now, you can’t see past those hospital walls. One day you will. One day you’ll see the beauty in all they did for your baby girl. One day you’ll be forgive the neurosurgeon who you found so blunt and cold. One day you will be thankful Eva was in your arms, and not on an operating table, when that last breath came.”
‘I didn’t feel sick, I didn’t look sick. Yet, my body was attacking itself AND my baby.’: Woman’s ‘leg swelling’ dismissed as ‘old age’ at 33, later diagnosed with Lupus
“My family and I were on our way to a cruise vacation when my doctor called, asking me to come in. ‘I don’t think you should go on that vacation,’ he said. What the heck?! Oh no, I was going on vacation! Then, he gave me a quick and dirty update on my situation. I felt like I was in a dream state. I started to cry. I pride myself on being very strong and independent, but in that moment, I was TERRIFIED. I wasn’t sure I’d be around to see my children grow up.”
‘My boys asked me to build a fort. Seriously, it was amazing. Until they asked me to spend the night with them.’: Mom learns to accept all the things she ‘just can’t do anymore’
“I did it. I obliged. I smiled and pretended to have fun. I slept in that teeny tiny space. But I paid for it the next morning. Boy, did I ever. Y’all. I can’t do that anymore. I’m too old, or too grouchy, or too in-love with sleep. Whichever it may be, I just can’t do that anymore. I’d give just about anything for my 16-year-old body again.”
‘All four legs collapsed. The second turn to look, I saw him seizing. I was in a state of shock.’: Golden Retriever dies suddenly due to suspected ‘blue algae neurotoxins’ in lake
“He looked at me like ‘but I don’t get it, momma, I’m okay. I’ll just get up.’ He collapsed again. I ran over to him, trying to give him water. Confused. Panicked. I didn’t know what was going on. Was he over heated? Dehydrated? I’m a nurse. Why didn’t I know?! Figure it out. Figure it out I kept telling myself. It took only ONE hour from the time we left the water for Oliver to breathe his last breath.”
‘If I have surgery, I might not wake up. If I don’t, the tumors will grow, killing me anyway.’: Mom with 23 tumors pens heartbreaking love letter to her sons
“I want to watch you grow up. I want to see what you wear on your first day of school, who you fall in love with. I don’t want to miss a moment. If I wake up, I will fight for you every day. If I don’t, please don’t ever doubt the power of my undying, unrelenting, never-ending love for you.”
‘We were given a pamphlet. Everything said ‘lethal’. My boy had other plans.’: Baby with Osteogenesis Imperfecta ‘makes his own rules,’ defies all medical odds
“I didn’t learn anything was wrong with my son until 2 weeks before I had him. It went from ‘something might be wrong with his foot’ to ‘he is completely incompatible with life’. We waited for the genetic results to come back knowing every hour could be his last. All I could think was, ‘This can’t be his story.’ He’s a warrior.”
‘My husband started making jokes about my online shopping. I jokingly tried to hide my packages. UPS, this is not what I meant!’: Woman gets hilarious UPS delivery
“I ordered a mini fridge and had forgotten about it. So, when I got a delivery notification I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ I walked out to my rug being three feet of the ground and was like, ‘What is happening!?’ I couldn’t stop laughing.”
‘Hours after we kissed, he dropped to the floor. He had a heart condition no one knew about.’: 26-year-old widow travels the world to show late husband ‘the places he had wanted to see’
“When the medics came in, they didn’t have that ‘okay, we have this under control’ look on their face. When I reached the hospital, I had no idea how to fill out the paperwork. I couldn’t tell you any of the answers. ‘Tell me what’s going on,’ I said to the doctor. He did just that, and it wasn’t looking good. I became a widow at 26.”
‘Candice, you’re an orphan now.’ I was pulled out of class at 8 years old to be told my dad had killed my mom, then himself.’: Woman loses parents to domestic violence, finds ‘peace, healing’ 21 years later
“Earlier that day, my mom had stolen my father’s gun and packed our bags. She knew she had to get us out before he killed us all. Soon, the police called. ‘Return the gun.’ She begged the police not to return it to him after he threatened her life, but they did it anyway. I was dropped off at my friend’s house. She was supposed to pick me up at 5 p.m. Never would I have imagined that I’d never see my mom or dad ever again.”
‘She’s so beautiful.’ ‘Yeah, RIGHT. She’s Christian! You don’t have a chance.’: LGBTQ couple thrives despite hate, claim ‘love is so much stronger than words’
“Then, she slid in my inbox! ‘I dare you to come outside and kiss me.’ We met at the stairs, looked at each other, her hand softly grabbed my face. Her lips felt like my missing puzzle piece. Everyone told us it wouldn’t work, that same-sex couples were an abomination. I’m so glad I didn’t listen. When you know, you know.”
‘I adopted a deployed soldier, the one that I would later fall madly in love with. People thought we were nuts.’: Couple say ‘I do’ 10 months after ‘random selection’ pairing online
“I signed up for a support system overseas. You send care packages and exchange emails. I happened to get my now husband. The first thing he said was ‘Hey, baby,’ and it melted my heart. Just four months after we first embraced, we decided to get married.”