“It felt like a bomb went off in our family. My head was swirling with fear, confusion, doubt. We went from being a carefree couple that traveled to full-time caregivers of a medically complex child. Call it intuition, gut instinct. I had no idea what to do or how to do it, but I knew with absolute certainty I was ready.”
‘I found myself divorced and single at 40, no kids. I didn’t want to wait any longer! As my adoption match fell apart, I fell in love. Life changed overnight.’ Woman takes in special needs stepson after mother’s sudden death
‘I’ve given birth. The world is gonna get whatever’s in THIS swimsuit. I have a swimsuit and a body. So YES, I already have a swimsuit body!’ Mom has ‘99 problems and a summer body ain’t one’
“Is there any part of the year that puts more pressure on us women to be ‘snatched’ than summer? After giving birth, swimsuits fit weird and my belly is CLEARLY visible. My rapidly changing size made me doubt what was appropriate for a ‘bigger woman’ at the pool.”
‘How hard is it to be home with the kids all day?’ I told her she was being ridiculous. Nah! Just Kidding! What I actually did was LISTEN to her.’ How husband helped his wife calm down when she needed it most
“My wife called and told me she was about to crack. The kids had been arguing all day, and making messes. She’d finally had enough and was hiding in our bedroom to get a break. I told her to calm down. I told her she was over reacting, and it wasn’t that bad.”
‘Sit down, sit down!’ I fell, hitting my head on the concrete floor. It’s so hard to deal with and so scary.’: Young woman’s harrowing journey to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome diagnosis
“I’ve had random fainting spells since I had my very first period. I told the lady next to me, ‘I am going to pass out.’ I remember bending my knees, and then I was out. Doctors kept going back to my blood sugar, but I knew that wasn’t it. This is when all my issues began.”
‘I made the decision to cut my mom out of my life. Now that I’m a mom, I wish she was there to guide me. I wish my children knew her. But I know she won’t change.’ Mom explains heartbreaking decision to protect her kids
“There were no I love you’s. I remember her spending a lot of time in bed, flying off the handle easily, expecting a lot out of everyone while she gave the minimum. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Was she a drug addict? Or was she just a bad person? I vow to give my children everything my mom could not give me.”
‘She held his hand and told him she loved him. It’s possible she’s the first person to ever utter those words to him.’: Police officer comforts elderly man in his final days after lifetime of ‘poverty, loneliness’
“You may look at this picture and see a caring granddaughter comforting her beloved grandfather. The truth is, this woman is a police officer. She met Bob while she was on duty. He was homeless most of his life and a stroke eventually left him non-verbal. She was horrified when she saw Bob’s living conditions.”
‘I glanced at the clock. My heart skipped a beat. 4:58. On this day, at 4:58 a.m., my first daughter was born. Nearly 2 hours later, she passed away.’: Mom recalls tragic day she lost 2 of her triplets
“As she began eating her birthday dessert, my daughter looked at me. ‘How do we get cheesecake to Heaven? I think my brother and sister would like some.’ Through tears, I smiled. Our family is missing two of our children, but it turns out, they are never far away.”
‘I keep telling myself, ‘Today is the day.’ The day I get it together. Workout more, eat healthier. Serve less frozen foods. Then, week after week, I don’t.’ Woman explains self-care is more than a ‘bubble bath’ or ‘weekend out with the girls’
“We’d never want our children to run on empty. Put themselves last. So, what are YOU doing? Life isn’t meant to be a series of checklists and drive-bys. Stop trying to fill up everyone’s cup and take a look at your own. It’s empty, isn’t it? That’s not living, sister – that’s just going through the motions.”
‘MOM, YOU DID IT!’ I had gone from a married, stay-at-home, homeschooling mother, to a single mom of 4 and nursing school graduate. And then it finally happened. I cried.’: Single mom’s empowering journey navigating divorce
“When my marriage imploded, I didn’t shed a tear. Up until the split, I had been a stay-at-home oilfield wife. I home-schooled the children. It started to hit me. Great big tears poured from my eyes as I walked across the stage. I turned to my kids in the crowd. We did it, together.”
‘I felt pregnant, but odds were slim. Brad was declared sterile. No one had ever survived a recurrence from this disease.’: Woman gets pregnant with ‘miracle baby’ despite husband’s terminal cancer diagnosis
“‘Go home and enjoy the time you have left,’ our doctor told us. Brad could not reckon the idea of leaving me as a single mom. But, I could not reckon the idea of not having a piece of him here with me on earth. We decided to take a giant leap of faith.”
‘We want friends who stick with us through our worst, but we bolt at the first sign of trouble.’: Woman’s candid take on being a ‘disloyal friend’
“We want friends who reach out and invite us, but we aren’t willing to be the one who takes the first step. We want friends who forgive, but we aren’t willing to be forgiving. Someone has one opinion you don’t like? Bye.”
‘I hadn’t even held my baby yet when the doctor came in. ‘We’ve found a growth. You need to come back in 2 weeks.’ I lost it! The happiest day of my life quickly turned into the worst.’ Cancerous growth found on woman’s labor day
“I remember my husband crying. He never cries, so I knew it was serious. I had a new baby and two small children at home. All I could think was, ‘I’m gonna die. I’m not gonna see my kids grow up.’ I’d started bleeding at 6 weeks pregnant. I had 20 ultrasounds and everyone said the baby was fine. But I knew something else was going on.”
‘I didn’t just lose her the day she died. I lost her the day I gave birth to my son, but she was missing.’: Daughter recalls late mom missing life moments, but how it’s forced her to ‘find her’
“I found her the day my son was born and the room was filled with everyone except her, but I looked down at my son’s sweet face and knew – they had already met before he came down from Heaven.”
I Was Pressured To Wear A Wig To My Friend’s Wedding
“We’ve been on bad terms ever since.”
‘Mom she’s gone, I just know.’ I sat on my stairs with my front door open, in shock.’: How this ‘broken’ mother helps other parents of child loss heal after her own tragedy
“Seeing my sweet baby girl laying in a huge bed, much too big for her, made me fall to my knees. A nurse said to me, ‘Get off the floor, it’s so dirty.’ I was angry at her, I was angry at the hospital chaplain placing his eerie hand on my shoulder with no real comfort. No parent should have to write their child’s eulogy, or decide between a casket or an urn. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.”
‘His comment was, ‘This is our summer and we aren’t doing anything fun.’ It was my fault, just like everything else.’: Woman’s struggle with severe anxiety and how her boyfriend helps her get through it
“I text my love and apologize. ‘I love you. I’m sorry I’m so emotional. I’m sorry we aren’t out having fun.’ I finally convince him he can go back downstairs, I’ll be ok. I lay back down and continue to cry. He sent me a LONG message. ‘You’re not ‘broken.'”
‘I was so scared of my daddy dying. I hated watching him throw up and not feel well. I knew in my heart I could help him. I just knew it!’: 10-year-old girl starts ‘secret’ plan to save father’s life
“The weekend before New Year’s, we got the shock of our life. The phone rang. Skeptical, my mom IGNORED it until I convinced her to answer. ‘Could you use a kidney tonight?’ Watching my daddy sit in the dialysis chair 4 days a week and get 2 big needles in his arm made me sad, but I never gave up! I was determined to help him.”
‘If not your breasts, they’ll attempt to convince you your worth depends upon your thigh gap, complexion, weight.’: Mom shuts down 8-year-old daughter thinking her body is ‘flawed’
“My darling girl, there is something I must get off my chest before you grow into yours. As you get older, society, men, even some women, will try to convince you that your breasts — their size, shape, level of ‘perky’ — are what define you as a woman. Hear me clearly when I firmly inform you, they are wrong.”
‘At 8 months old, a common cold became too much for our daughter’s heart. She stopped breathing in her daddy’s arms.’ Daughter’s harrowing journey of survival after cardiac arrest
“We listed our daughter understanding a heart may not come in time to save her. Love and hope helped us to live through those days of uncertainty. Four months later, our gift of life came.”
‘One drink, I had one drink. After that, I remember nothing. My virginity was taken before I was ready.’: Woman’s powerful story overcoming boyfriend’s sexual assault
“The next day I woke up and we went to get breakfast. While we were driving he says, ‘I can’t believe that happened last night.’ ‘What happened?’ He said, ‘You don’t remember? ‘ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He got mad because I didn’t remember our ‘first time.’”
‘You loved me once,’ I croaked. I heard a cracking sound as my head hit the window. I’d ‘pushed his buttons’ and made him do it.’: Woman recounts how ‘fairy tale’ quickly turned to abusive nightmare
“In slow motion, the scene still unspools in my head. ‘You loved me once,’ I croaked out, looking up at him. We had history. We had a home together. Failure was not an option. I clung to him, my heart believing if I just loved him enough, he’d emerge from the darkness.”
‘I wrote a stranger. ‘Help me. I’m scared. Please. I need to understand my daughter.’ I begged her to give me the secret. ‘Will we be okay?’ Real-life ‘princess’ helps ease mother’s fears over daughter’s autism diagnosis
“I was desperate to connect with anyone who could say, ‘I get it,’ instead of the ‘I can’t imagines’ that were being hurled my way. And then I stumbled upon a beauty queen.”
‘I wanted him to love me. I let him put a needle of meth into my arm. Within 6 months, I lost my son.’: Woman’s journey from ‘successful businesswoman’ to ‘dying drug addict’
“Life as I knew it ended with the prick of a needle. I was a successful businesswoman, living a normal life. I paid my bills, owned a home, and did the right things. But at the age of 34, I made a choice that changed my life forever. My single lapse in judgement separated me from my son, annihilated my morals, and almost killed me.”
‘Twelve hours after we were in the water, he woke up with a fever, chills and cramping. His legs started to hurt severely. The nurses had never seen anything like it.’ Daughter warns of flesh eating bacteria that took her father’s life
“They took him back immediately. As they were helping him get changed into his hospital gown, they saw this terribly swollen black spot on his back that was not there before. My mom sent me a picture of it, and it felt like someone sucker punched me. Flesh Eating Bacteria sounds like an urban legend. Let me assure you, it is not.”
‘I’m sorry. The adoption is over.’ He was being placed in foster care. I had this feeling, this wasn’t the end.’: Couple hikes the globe with kids after nearly failed adoption of ‘beautiful little boy’
“‘A lot has happened over the weekend. The birth mom had her baby on Friday night,’ the caseworker said. ‘Do you still want to go through with the adoption since he was born premature?’ That question absolutely baffled me. This baby boy was being placed in the foster care system.”