“14 years later, devastation struck once again. I lost my 19-year-old son in a tragic, earth-shattering suicide. The only comfort I have, is that my father was there to welcome him home. He was not easily influenced by peer pressure. Or, so we thought.”
‘The phone rang at 5 a.m. ‘You need to come to the hospital. Your father is not doing well.’ My father? In the hospital? No way. He was a healthy, happy man. How could he be that sick?’
‘I was taken from school to my last foster home. I didn’t get to say goodbye to anyone. I didn’t know I would NEVER go home again. My parents had run out of chances.’
“I remember the car. The social workers wore suits, and the car was dark blue. I sat in the back. The child lock was on, and I felt trapped. When we arrived at the foster home, it was a place I had been in with my sister, but I still didn’t understand. This time, it was only me.”
‘His head was in his hands. ‘I ruined everything! Call the daycare. Tell them we can’t send the kids anymore.’ I used to hide in the bathroom to cry.’: Couple supports each other through job loss, ‘This too, shall pass’
“We had another baby, we were happy. Things were great, until they weren’t. I’ll never forget the day when I called in sick because of a bad migraine. An hour after my husband left for work, he called to tell me the bad news. He’d lost his job. He was crying, I could barely understand what he was saying.”
‘I just got fired. You should leave me,’ my husband’s text said. Something was very off. Strange things like him disappearing at odd times, catching him in lies, his increased anger.’
“He’d opened a private bank account where he had been hiding his lifestyle. I found countless large charges to the local casino. Angry emails. Work phone calls he had ignored. I discovered he was regularly viewing porn. I was livid. Heartbroken.”
‘No, mommy. You obey ME!’ My son was LOSING. HIS. MIND. Tears were flowing, arms flailing. He threw his sandwich on the ground in protest. All I could think was, ‘I’m failing.’
“Mom shamers lined up with judgemental eyes. The grocery line was never-ending. My friend and her sweet, well-behaved daughter began quietly cleaning up their lunch. ‘If you do it this way, they wouldn’t be acting like that.’ Within five minutes, I raised my white flag.”
‘Ladies, don’t settle. Wait. Trust. There is a man who will make you feel safe. Who will calm your fears. Who will make you feel beautiful daily. Who will fight for you.’
“Wait. Do not ever settle for less. And please – Don’t ever think you will change the heart of a man that is not these things. You can’t. You won’t.”
‘My daughter started bawling and wouldn’t let go of me. ‘All you do is sleep!’ My friends would say, ‘You’re a single mom. It’s normal to be tired.’ I knew something was wrong.’
‘It was happening at home, at work, at the grocery store. When I got home, I would give my daughter a snack and immediately go to sleep. Every time I got up to use the restroom, my heart rate would shoot up. I started teaching my 8-year-old how to call 911 if I couldn’t make it to the phone.”
‘I choked back tears when Travon told me, ‘You’re my big sister now!’ My earth shattered.’: Family adopts 3 brothers from foster care, now family of 8
“We got a call for three boys – ages 1, 3, and 4. They were brothers, and had been separated. ‘I’m glad you are not mean and never get mad. I was scared of foster parents, but not you. You never scream or cuss,’ the oldest said as my mom tucked him in. In their eyes, they were already a part of our family.”
‘I tried to put my pre-baby jeans on, and they didn’t fit. ‘You did good, babe, ’I looked at myself in the mirror and said, instead of feeling like crap.’
“I didn’t just wake up one day with my body not fitting into jeans. I didn’t just wake up with muscle separation, a saggy belly, stretch marks or a bit of extra weight. I had a freaking baby. I grew a baby. I made it in my body. I made a foot in there, an eyeball, I made another heartbeat.”
Dear Nurses, Thank You For Holding Our Hands Every Step Of The Way
“You sat with me when I couldn’t hold back the tears. You carried my mom when she was too weak to walk. You held her hand the day she died because you didn’t want her to be alone.”
‘Society to working moms: Date your spouse! It’s important to keep your relationship fresh. Hire a babysitter, they charge $22+ an hour, so take out an extra mortgage to afford this.’: Woman details working mom struggles
“Go back to work 6 weeks after having the baby. The baby you spent 9-10 months growing inside of your body. Make sure to break the glass ceiling and excel at your job – you can do anything a man can do! It is your job to show society this! Show the world that women can do it all. Rise to the top of your career.”
‘Are you going to name your children?,’ a nurse asked me. My triplets were 2 days old. They had been known as Baby A, Baby B and Baby C. The truth is, we were scared.’
“My husband and I began to brainstorm. Peyton and Parker were always our favorites. That was the easy part — Peyton and Parker were alive. Several floors below, in the hospital morgue, was our peaceful angel, only known as ‘Baby A.’ How was I supposed to name a child I only looked at for a few hours?”
‘I noticed an elderly woman sitting alone. My exact thoughts were, ‘I’d hate to have to eat alone.’ So I walked over and asked if I could sit with her.’: Man shares sweet encounter with elderly woman, ‘Everyone has a story’
“She told me she lost her husband and that tomorrow would have been their 60th anniversary.”
‘Leah, this is your hell, but we’ve got to walk through it.’ Becoming a single mother was an adjustment I never anticipated. Our romantic relationship ended, but it served a mighty purpose.’
“It didn’t work out. He wasn’t mine to keep, but I finally realized what our relationship was meant for. I thank my daughter’s father for giving me the greatest gift I could ever know.”
‘No, not again! I can’t handle another child like this!’ I was angry at people who asked, ‘Are you gonna try again for a ‘normal’ child? I sat in the bathroom, crying.’
‘I was in survivor mode. I wouldn’t let myself feel. I couldn’t be weak; I had to keep going. People asked, ‘When will they grow out of it?’ I remember getting to a point where I thought, ‘This is going to kill me. I need to accept it.'”
‘I spontaneously booked a hotel room and drove 5 hours to meet a stranger. ‘What the hell am I doing here?!,’ I wrote to my friend. I felt absolutely crazy, but I was on top of the WORLD.’
“We went back to his apartment. I was hesitant, because, what would happen next?! It was getting into the early morning hours, so I thought to myself, now or never. What was happening to me?!”
‘There’s not just one healthy baby. There’s TWO!’ My husband fell to the floor in shock. I had a huge pit in the bottom of my stomach. ‘There must be some mistake!’
“She stepped out of the room to give my OB a call. My mind went crazy. She must’ve been calling for backup. I was crying in complete confusion. Two? TWINS? No one gets pregnant and thinks ‘Yay! I’m going to have babies!’ It’s always, ‘Yay! I’m going to have A baby!’ But I had this strange feeling in my chest.”
‘Caleb fell off the couch. Something is wrong,’ my babysitter’s boyfriend told me. My heart stopped! ‘I’ll be right there!’ She was holding my son who was NOT crying. His eyes were closed.’
“I went back to work after maternity leave. I felt pretty good about the babysitter I found. She had a baby of her own whom she stayed at home with. I met her boyfriend (father of her baby). For two weeks, I went over on every lunch to check on him. Then I got the phone call.”
‘You’ve asked me where I’ve been. You said, ‘I seem off.’ You’ve told me through texts that you miss my posts. I can’t play that role in your life right now.’
“You’re thinking: ‘How are we supposed to know if you don’t tell us?’ It doesn’t work like that, at least not for me. I haven’t been there recently. Have you noticed? I don’t have it in me.”
‘Somebody stop that dog!’ I was in the right place at the right time. Cars zoomed by. I dove for the dog on asphalt.’: Retired professional Nike distance runner joins selfless community effort to save lost dog
“I spotted a large white, fluffy dog. There was no owner attached to his leash, and the dog was running frantically down the middle of a busy intersection. We ran in dress shoes, heels, and sneakers until we had blisters. The next 3 miles were a blur. We were shouting, but most of all, determined.”
‘We’re going to stay until the courts tell us we can’t keep her. We have to see it through for her, no matter what.’: Foster mom gains custody of little girl after 2 years raising her, ‘Our family is finally complete’
“The Army told Jason it was time to move, but she wasn’t legally free. With tears in his eyes, he wrapped me in his arms and said, ‘We’re ripping our family to shreds trying to keep it together. But we can’t leave her.’ The boys hadn’t even heard what we decided; they simply rallied to their sister. They humbled me right down to my core.”
‘You don’t understand, they will never help your family.’ I was blown away. He was getting worse by the day. ‘I’ve never had an experience like this before,’ the crisis worker apologized.’
“On my way home I received the phone call. It was totally incoherent from all the screaming. I desperately tried to find out what was happening. It was my daughter. ‘It’s Josh,’ I finally heard through the screams.”
‘But you don’t look sick.’ My mom said, ‘There is no way, the chances are so low, it would be very rare.’ She was right. The risk is less than one percent, but I fell into that percentage.’
“They get sad and say, ‘but you’re so young!’ You never truly know what people are going through. I had family members tell me, ‘We’re sorry for not visiting, but it was too hard to see you go through this.’ Or that seeing me would make it ‘all too real.’ It is real.”
‘Why are you wearing a T-shirt?,’ I asked when I picked her up. ‘I had to put something on because I need privacy.’ She started bawling.’: Mom urges daughter’s appearance is ‘not nearly as important as her education’
“‘Yeah, it will be nice out, you can wear a dress.’ It didn’t occur to me an adult would look at my 5-year-old child and think wearing a dress was inappropriate. She was told she needed to leave class and go to the nurse’s office. The nurse told her, ‘She needed to cover her body.'”
‘I awoke from the anesthesia. ‘Is it closed?’ My family nodded. I feared passing it to my kids.’: Sister surrogate births twins in wake of sibling’s infertility battle, ‘I couldn’t be more proud of her!’
“I questioned whether I’d ever have boyfriends, if someone would ever love me enough to marry me. I was weird looking. I was different. I kept telling myself I didn’t need kids. Then, I met a man and my life did a 180. I wanted a family and kids so badly.”