‘3 months after our son’s death, I was unexpectedly pregnant again. We couldn’t believe it. We couldn’t fathom having another child.’: Mom says she was ‘destroyed’ after SIDS loss, but newborn daughter ‘saved me’

“We stood in a field having our gender reveal photos taken. I was 17 weeks pregnant. We shared our announcement photos. A year later to the day, he was gone. We said that was it, we were done. But, 11 months after he left this earth, his sister was due to arrive.”

‘Have you been under any stress lately?’ I looked at my husband. The doctor had no way of knowing he’d just been diagnosed with terminal cancer.’: Widow urges others to ‘never waste time again’ after losing police officer husband to cancer

“My husband insisted we go to the hospital. He picked me up like a baby, placed my body on the passenger seat and tossed my legs inside the car. The one thing that sticks out to me isn’t the headache itself, or the pain. It was when I asked the doctor what could have caused it. He had no idea the strong, healthy-looking, tanned, smiling man next to me was just diagnosed with terminal cancer.”

‘My husband ate 12 DOSES of Ex-lax. I called Poison Control. He thought he was dying. I cannot stop laughing.’: Wife hilariously recounts 39-year-old husband’s mistake, is ‘still crying’ from laughing so hard

“The Poison Control guy was like, ‘The biggest risks are cramping, dehydration, and diaper rash.’ DIAPER RASH! I was NOT ready for this dude to come at me with diaper rash. I completely lost it. He kept chuckling and going, ‘Oh boy. Oooooooh boy.’ I’m wheezing just thinking about it.”

‘Robin, come sit with me. Right now. Just stop for a minute.’ I didn’t. 8 months later, he was gone.’: Wife loses husband to cancer shortly after giving birth, hopes his legacy will ‘save another drowning soul’

‘”You shouldn’t have come. This isn’t a good place for our newborn.’ Yes, but I couldn’t leave my husband in the ICU alone. ‘Maddie is so little, and you are breastfeeding. I’ll be okay. Take her home.’ He insisted I get some sleep. The next morning, I got the phone call. ‘We will talk when you get here.’ I hung up the phone and said to myself, ‘He has cancer.’ I cried the entire way to the hospital.”

‘Our son’s entire 18 hours and 16 minutes of life, he was never alone. He was fiercely loved, deeply cherished, and widely celebrated.’: Mom turns loss of son’s ‘fleeting life’ to Trisomy 18 into ‘something of value’

“We were going to travel, tackle, and triumph over every inch of this world. I asked myself one very important question, ‘How can I transform my son’s fleeting life and too-soon death into something of value?’ I thought I lost the chance to have a great adventure with Cole when I lost him, but I think our great adventure together is really just beginning.”

‘I was 15, pregnant. My principal looked at me. ‘Your mom didn’t graduate. Your dad didn’t graduate. Just drop out.’ I never felt more hopeless.’: Teen keeps pregnancy against all odds, loses son 18 years later in car crash

“The hardest part was telling my mom. She had NO IDEA I was even having sex. My baby daddy would walk by me like he never even knew me. Yet, if I knew then, pregnant at 15, that my child would pass away in a tragic car accident at only 18, would I still have chosen to keep him? The answer is yes. A billion times, YES.”

‘She’s going to have emergency brain surgery.’ I screamed. What the hell would I do without a mom?’: 19-year-old daughter suddenly loses mother to stage 4 cancer, finds healing through ‘roller coaster’ of grief

“My parents frantically came down the stairs. The entire left side of my mom’s body was numb. My dad was taking her to the hospital. Contrary to my wishful thinking, my mom was not going to be the ‘miracle.’ There I was. 19 years old, trying to figure out how I would go on in a world without my mom in it.”

‘Babe, are you serious?’ My wife’s body was shaking. She nodded, in tears. ‘You’re pregnant? Oh my Gosh!’: Father brought to tears after learning wife is pregnant 3 years after loss of twins

“‘Babe, babe,’ my wife whispered. She was holding a pregnancy test. ‘Is this a prank?,’ I thought. She placed her palm across her mouth. She nodded as my jaw dropped. ‘Yes, I’m really—,’ Before she could finish her sentence, I picked her up, spun her in circles while showering her with kisses. ‘Oh my Gosh,’ I repeated, at least 10 times.”

‘My daughter came home from preschool different. She was biting herself. She stopped speaking, sleeping, playing with toys. I could no longer write it off.’ Mom receives Rett Syndrome diagnosis, told it’s ‘one of the most severe cases’

“I get a call from the geneticist. The call drops 3 separate times. The most important call of our life and I miss it. I sit and wait. My phone rings again. He says, ‘Genetics just confirmed Evie has Rett Syndrome.’ He says, ‘There’s no cure. We can’t change it. You can’t do anything.’ My heart sank. This was serious.”

‘After 3 miscarriages, I was told I was ‘selfish’ to want more kids. ‘You have 2 babies. You no longer have a right to try.’ I felt hopeless, shameful.’: Woman explains how her marriage grew stronger the ‘year she lost 3 babies’

“When we lost our first baby, it felt more like a fluke. When we lost our second baby, it no longer felt normal; it felt like my fault. I was afraid of what it would do to my relationship. Would he blame me? Was I letting him down? Did he CARE? Those questions became my insecurities.”

‘My daughter said ‘Daddy!’ the first time she met him. I was mortified. I thought my abusive past would be a deal breaker.’: Stepdad adopts wife’s 3 kids after her abusive relationship, loves them ‘unconditionally’ as his own

“When I met Brian, I was a healing domestic abuser survivor with 3 little babies from my abuser. Brian and I worked together, and I flirted, but got nothing from him. I thought maybe he had a girlfriend and thought I was a crazy person. I built up the courage to ask him on a date. As he walked to the table, I knew I had to tell him everything I’d been through.”

‘Mommy, is this baby going to die?’ It caught me off guard, as if the wind was knocked out of me.’: Mom eases daughter’s mind about this ‘healthy’ baby after losing her brother, sister in NICU as micropreemies

“I gently hugged my daughter. To be honest, it’s a question I’ve thought about daily for months. That’s the fear that comes with pregnancy after loss. I looked at her and smiled through tears. ‘She’s very healthy,’ I told my brave little girl. ‘That’s because Parker and Abby sent her to us,’ I said.”

‘She’s going to die soon. I’m just dating her out of pity.’ He had a girlfriend in another state. He was a horrible man.’: Single mom finds courage to leave abusive husband, new fiancé, to be ‘strong, thriving’ for 4-year-old son

“He took me out. We drank too much. I woke up the next morning in shock. I didn’t remember consenting to anything. We found out I was pregnant and I was terrified. Everything inside me was saying to detach from my son’s father. Instead, we did ‘the right thing’ and got married.”

‘It wasn’t like you see in the movies where you walk in a dark ally and get abducted by some stranger. This was my best friend.’: After years of denial, sexual abuse survivor accepts it wasn’t her fault

“I’ll never forget his words. There were no warning signs. No grooming. I remember wanting to scream, but not feeling like I could talk, so I made a mumbling noise. I didn’t want my body. I wanted to take it off like a jacket, but I couldn’t. I woke up the next morning with a huge bump on my head, my underwear backwards. I never wanted to be the girl who was raped.”

‘Girls shouldn’t play baseball. Stick to softball.’ The coach suddenly cut our daughter from the team.’: 7-year-old girl, MVP player gets dropped from baseball team after ‘advanced plays’

“Our daughter Ashlynn was MVP. Shortly after, the coach moved her to the bottom of the batter order. When we showed up at the next tryout, the team had already been selected without her. And the next tryout. It was so unfair what was happening. If we told her, we knew it would change how much she loved baseball.”

‘This woman looks like crap! Want to intervene?,’ I shouted. Silence. I fell to the ground and cried.’: 25-year-old single mom feels like ‘crap’ after divorce, uses son as motivation to ‘stop pretending’

“How did my life land here? I was 24 years old and divorced. I was a college student and a mother, and suddenly, I was alone. ‘But isn’t it better than before you were divorced?’ is not a consolation. We’re afraid to admit the truth. Some days it’s unbearable. But I’m going to stop pretending.”

‘My mom came out of surgery. ‘Everything looks beautiful,’ the nurse said. Just 10 minutes later, my sister called screaming. My little mom was gone.’ Mom passes after heart surgery, brings family closer than ‘ever before’

“I remember my mom stepping into the house. She looked different, weak. She blamed it on eating bad bacon…yes, bacon. I talked to her about the possibility of having had a heart attack. She looked at me stubbornly and said, ‘So?’ We convinced her to go to the hospital. She went only for her ‘little angels,’ her great grandkids. We found ourselves in tidal wave after tidal wave of problems.”