“I went to the hospital by ambulance and apologized to the paramedics. She asked me ‘why?’ I told her, ‘Because if I wasn’t having a heart attack, I’d feel bad I was wasting people’s time.’ We both laughed at how ridiculous it sounded. But I continued to apologize to everyone.”
‘I felt like a building was collapsing on my chest. I had sharp pains. When I got up to get my screaming baby, I fainted. I couldn’t move, so I just sat until my husband came home.’
‘I almost didn’t go in. I knew no one. All the women had head-coverings and I didn’t. I parked my car and prayed it was the right thing to do.’
“Tentatively, and with a teary catch in my throat, I asked ‘May I leave this sign?’ ‘Are you a Muslim?’ I said … ‘No, ma’am, Christian.’ To which she said — ‘We are all the same.’ I went in a stranger with a sign, and came out with a friend; hopefully for life.”
‘Okay, so which of you is the mother? There can only be one.’ She made a face when we gave both names.’: LGBT couple urge ‘love is what makes a family’
“The minute we met the daycare director, she asked if we were sisters. I dreaded saying we weren’t. We had our hearts set on this place. It checked all our boxes. After I clarified we were married, she just said, ‘Oh.’ There wasn’t a ‘spot’ for us. Our friends went in later that day and were offered a spot. The only difference? We were gay and they were straight.”
‘My mom went all out. I remember thinking how random it seemed. She tried so hard, wanting to make this nice dinner for us. We made fun of her for it.’
“I feel bad about it to this day. What we brushed off as her ditsy-ness was actually the first signs of the disease. I hate myself for the way I acted that day. I feel so bad and so guilty. It kills me.”
‘There are police officers in the hall. ‘I want them to hurt me, mommy! I want them to kill me with their guns!’ He started crying and hitting himself in the head.’
“‘I think he’s manic,’ I say. ‘His moods are rally erratic and I’m worried.’ The nurse looks at me skeptically. Who am I to know about ‘mania?’ It was stupid to bring him here. He has been through hell.”
‘After 15 years, the phone rang on a Friday morning. It was the case worker saying she had not one, but TWO babies. 6-week-old twins. ‘Would you take two babies instead of one?’
“An even bigger surprise was in store, a few years after we were put up for adoption, our birth parents, who were not together at the time of our birth, had reunited and later married.”
‘How could this be? My ultrasound nurse told me the baby DID NOT have Down syndrome. The nurse looked at me and asked, ‘Are you going to keep her?’
“I wanted to do the whole thing by myself. No doctor, no ultrasound, no hospital, no midwife. So I did. My close friends and family were definitely not fans. My husband went along with it knowing when I make up my mind to do something, that’s it. It’s done.”
‘I found out my marriage was a lie. He was unfaithful. I had been lied to for months. I spewed venomous hate towards him. I was numb. Then, I found out I was having a miscarriage.’
“We got married! I was so happy, I truly thought we were going to be okay. I had two amazing daughters, a rocking career, a husband who wasn’t perfect, but he tried. Then my world fell apart.”
‘As soon as she checked with the doppler she knew. And deep down I knew. I just prayed I was wrong. All I could get out is ‘why isn’t it flickering?’ They just said ‘we are trying to figure that out.’ Woman shares life after stillbirth
“I screamed, asking if it was her cord that caused it over and over.”
‘He slipped something in my drink. He had a razor blade. He ‘accidentally’ sliced my thigh. I took photos of the blood dripping down my leg. When I woke up, the photos were deleted.’Woman’s powerful story of overcoming sexual assault
“I met someone new. Someone who made me feel alive again. Six months later, I found out I was pregnant. Then I received devastating news.”
‘My husband and I met at Dixie Chicken. My neighbor thought he was cute, so I agreed to talk to him for her. Oops.’: Wife says ‘It was luck we got together, but it’s not luck we’ve stayed together’
“I was older. I was over the college scene. I’d been burned a few times. I had zero interest in boys, but my neighbor thought he was cute, so I agreed to go talk to him for her. Oops.”
‘Signing that consent form is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I lost my 8th child and my hope of ever conceiving naturally again.’: Woman strives to move forward after devastating pregnancy news
“The doctor told us ‘everything looks perfect!’ I went home expecting things to be OK.”
‘Is it normal to hate your baby?’ I was desperately begging for God to kill her. What’s wrong with me? I was terrified of what I would do to her.’: Woman overcomes ‘debilitating’ postpartum depression
“I decided I would talk to my OBGYN when I went for my next check up. Little did I know, I wouldn’t be able to make it until then. My mom was going to leave to go home and I begged her not to. I was terrified of what I would do.”
‘I had a vivid dream someone broke into my house. At 5 a.m. the next morning, I awoke to a man crouched on the side of my bed with a knife in hand. My gift began at an early age.’
“I warned him, ‘Something horrible is going to happen.’ He wrote down my dream in his journal and carried it in his backpack. I received his call later. ‘Everything you said was true!'”
‘Doctors told me I was ‘lying.’ I hadn’t started my period. Before I took the birth control, I took a pregnancy test. It was POSITIVE!? We bought 5 more tests. All of them were positive!’
“I was having vivid, strange dreams. A neighbor said, ‘Are you pregnant?’ I said ‘no’ and cried. A switch flipped in me. I became crazy emotional. I was having day dreams about drilling a hole in my head or cutting it off. I went to doctor after doctor. They all said that it was because of my weight.”
‘He carried her! I noticed an elderly lady having a rough time. I pointed her out to my husband. She did not have the strength to come up the stairs.’
“Y’all I have to brag on my husband big time! He made me soo proud.”
‘I remember screaming, ‘What part of no don’t you understand!’ He looked at me shocked. ‘She’s harmless,’ he said. I had no idea what he had. I’d never seen it before.’: Woman overcomes addiction, twins motivate her to stay clean
“I didn’t kiss my kids goodbye. I didn’t tell anyone. I left without a second thought. I don’t know how many times they asked, ‘When is mommy coming home?’ A few months later, I found out I was pregnant with twins.”
‘There’s only one of me!,’ you scream. It’s okay to lose it. It’s okay to scream into a pillow. It doesn’t mean you’ve lost. Or you’ve failed. You feel like a bad mother.’
“The day you want them to nap, is the day they’ll be jump on couches. The day you’re going to clean is the day they’re going to throw toys, ask for millions of snacks and draw on walls. The day you have an appointment is the day they sleep in.”
‘My 18-year-old sister had JUST announced she was pregnant. My parents were going to DIE. I was too.’: Young woman ‘terrified’ to tell parents of unexpected pregnancy
“We went to the store to get the morning after pill. As we stood in line, pregnancy tests caught my eye. Something kept forcing me to look at them. The longer we stood there, the louder this voice in my head screamed to buy one. I told Tim, ‘Let’s buy a pregnancy test instead.'”
‘Oh no, Mommy, the feet are coming out first.’ We watched one birth, then another and another.’: Adorable little girl enthusiastically ‘prepares’ for brother’s home birth
“‘Mommy? If you don’t have a midwife… I can help you with the birth.’ I wanted her to be prepared for the home birth of her little brother, so I showed her a birth video. ‘Can we watch another one?’ She was fascinated.”
‘You can’t do it, don’t touch him!,’ she’d scream at me. He was alive. I wanted to meet him. I blacked out after. I died and woke up in the ICU.’
“It was not over yet. This time it was different. This time CPS came to visit me. She told me I was mentally unstable, and there was an open investigation. My whole world flipped upside down. I begged to not let this happen.”
‘I felt like I was the only person I knew who was experiencing anxiety. So, why is it something no one wants to talk about?’
I stopped saying, ‘I’ll take care of myself when’ and started saying, ‘I’m taking care of myself because I deserve all of the love for myself that I share with others.’
‘My appendix ruptured while pregnant. ‘She is perfectly healthy,’ the doctor reassured. He was so incredibly wrong.’: Mom births baby with craniosynostosis, ‘she is perfectly imperfect’
“The ultrasound photos showed a perfectly formed body, 10 beautiful fingers and toes. Once born, she cried out one time and then fell silent and blue. Her nasal passages were blocked by bone and my placenta was torn to shreds. Avery’s condition was so much more complicated than any of the photos led us to believe.”
‘I love you to the moon. See you tomorrow.’ But tomorrow never came. ‘Paula, he was in an accident. He’s dead.’: Woman loses husband in motorcycle accident
“It was one of Noel’s friends. The friend who is supposed to call if anything bad were to happen. I answered with a laugh. ‘Hi, what happened now?’ He was a great rider and it seemed impossible that one day he was here and the next he was gone.”
I Got Divorced After 22 Years Of Marriage, Then I Stepped Foot In Kmart And Found My Soulmate
“He said, ‘I’d ask you out if you weren’t wearing that wedding ring.’ Newly single, it was the first day of the rest of my life. I had to act swiftly.”