“He surprised me with 21 red roses. It was the beginning of a horror story. He started showing up at my house in the middle of the night. He’d stroke my cheek and tell everyone I was his wife. The police didn’t take it seriously. ‘Didn’t you tell him to leave you alone? Do it again with more force!’”
‘He’d show up at church, or anywhere else I was going. Without warning, I’d feel a hand grabbing my shoulder.’: Woman overcomes years of stalking, PTSD to become health coach
‘Am I speaking to Stefany?’ I tell her yes. ‘I’ve been having an affair with your husband for 18 months.’: Woman discovers husband used ‘Ashley Madison’ dating service for affair
“My thought was that since I was wife #3, he certainly wouldn’t do anything as drastic as have an affair to screw up our relationship. I ask her how the two of them met and she says that’s the one thing she won’t tell me. For some unknown reason, I blurt out ‘Ashley Madison?’ She tells me yes, that’s how they met. I’m screaming, my heart is beating a mile a minute.”
‘What?! NO. I don’t ever want to lose this. I was suddenly very protective of it. I want it with me. Forever. Wedding day and all.’
“Weeks into knowing each other, I received the first ever ‘Goodnight, beautiful’ text from him. My heartbeat quickened. Unknowingly, I covered my shy smile with my hand. But to both of our shock, I instantly and abhorrently rejected the offer.”
‘Did you hit something?’ ‘No.’ He crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side. ‘No, because you don’t know, or no, because you don’t want to tell me?’ There was no way I was admitting to it.’
“He walked in and had that look on his face. Where you know you’re in trouble, but you don’t know why. He’s waiting for you to say something and you’re racking your brain about what you should admit to. He found the evidence. ‘A-ha!’ My jaw dropped when I saw it.”
‘Why is your mom white?’ Without skipping a beat, my son said, ‘Families don’t have to match.’: Adoptive mom says ‘we don’t match in color, but we match in hearts’
“My family doesn’t look like most. I am a white mama to three beautiful, brown children. And although most of the time we don’t notice, others around us do.”
‘When the trunk opened, we found a name – Patricia. They discovered it hidden in the attic. In my gut, I knew I was going to find her.’
“I could tell she was a bit hesitant. I put the trunk down on her front porch, took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. As I heard her steps as she approached, I couldn’t contain myself. She opened the door, looked down, and said, ‘I can’t believe you found it.’”
‘She flatly told us his ‘problem.’ One phone call changed my understanding as to what was happening in the school walls.’: Son diagnosed with ADHD, mom talks about how proud she is he made it through school
“Yes, Gabriel’s mom? We need you to come down to the school and pick up your son. He has been suspended.”
‘Three months before our wedding day, I was diagnosed with cancer. I offered him an out — but he didn’t take it.’
“He went on a job interview the morning of our wedding day. With medical bills looming, we backed out of buying our first home together and, instead, moved into a rental apartment. As our wedding day approached, nothing was as we expected it would be.”
‘Let them just hold their baby.’ He looked different. I’m filled with gratitude for her compassion.’: Couple learns of newborn’s rare genetic syndrome, encourages others to see ‘grace’ in their journey
“As we calmly talked on that moon-lit drive, my husband said something to me I’ll never forget. He broke a short silence. ‘If anyone would be trusted with a special-needs child, it would be you. You have the grace and patience to do this.’ I’m overjoyed knowing we’ve been included in an elite club.”
‘My son played at her house earlier that day and acted up. This is the moment that finally broke me. This was the moment it all came flooding out.’
“It’s hard to hide you’re drowning when water is gushing onto the floor. I was horrified. I was embarrassed. I was sure she’d tell everyone. But instead, my friend simply said, ‘Let’s go out tonight.'”
‘The doctor didn’t even remember what had gone wrong. THE DOCTOR DIDN’T REMEMBER? My surgeon told him, ‘There were complications, but they fixed everything.’
“I lost 40 pounds without trying during the 6 months after my surgery. I was so sick and withering away, but people didn’t know. I just got compliments on ‘how amazing and thin I looked.’ People had no idea.”
‘I ordered my food but as I went to pay, I realized I had left my wallet at work. I told this young man to cancel my order. His response shocked me.’: Woman touched by McDonald’s employee act of kindness
“He didn’t know how tired I was or that I hadn’t eaten.”
‘We are moving two doors down from my parents. TWO DOORS! We have been living with my parents for 3.5 years now.’
“I was very early on in my triplet pregnancy. We lived in a two-bedroom condo and we knew our lives were about to change dramatically. My parents took us in, and we’ve been trying to save for a home for 4 years now.”
‘A boy tapped me. ‘Why do you have a mustache? What’s that mark between your eyebrows?’ I was shocked. My face flushed with embarrassment.’
“My mom started letting me wear concealer. I wouldn’t allow myself to go out in public without my ‘mask’ on. I was terrified of what people would think if they saw me in my raw state.”
‘It was bottle after bottle. After 32 years of marriage you would think he would have walked away because he had every reason to.’
“At that moment, I was not his. That was a feeling I never want to feel again. A partial hysterectomy ended my childbearing years. The days seemed to drift by with dark clouds hiding the bit of sunshine left in my life.”
‘I looked at my daughter standing beside me. You could see the fear in her eyes. No one was talking. I finally yelled out ‘HELLO!’
“I kept thinking, ‘I just have to make it to the hospital, I just need to make it to the hospital.’ Her coloring was terrible. I entered the door carrying my limp daughter.”
‘The police said, ‘If she gets caught using drugs, THEN it’s our problem.’ My sister was missing and vulnerable. I just wanted her back.’: Woman searches 20 years for addicted sister, ‘In looking for her, I lost myself’
“I heard my mother shout, ‘Your sister is missing! We have no idea where she is!’ I got on the next plane, determined to find her myself. Because of her mental state and drug addiction, it didn’t seem to matter to others. We were told, ‘Maybe she doesn’t want to be found.’”
‘Snip snip, Hooray! We have some exciting news. I brought up the vasectomy, and knew we had to have a party.’
“I think that’s all my husband thought I had planned, but little did he know!”
‘Any idea what this charge is?’ It was a purchase from Tiffany’s. ‘I am seeing someone.’: Woman recalls messy custody battle after husband’s affair, ‘I saw how little I meant to him’
“He had been acting weird for the last few months. I thought he was going through a mid-life crisis. I felt invisible. I found a letter in his pocket addressed to me. ‘I’m forced to resign my role as your loving husband.’ I felt like the Hulk and wanted a car to throw or a building to smash. I felt like a shell of a person.”
‘I have a 16-day-old baby girl in the NICU ready to be discharged.’ We fell head over heels in love.’: After battling infertility and infant loss, couple adopts their ‘forever daughter’
“We received a call from our agency. ‘She will need an adoptive home if the placement falls through.’ We had agreed we would not take another infant. NO WAY would we put ourselves in a situation to experience infant loss… AGAIN. We were in awe of this little bundle that God was entrusting us with, for however much time he had planned.”
Shocking Moment Man Accidentally Discovers He’s Adopted
“I couldn’t stop crying. All these thoughts and questions rushed into my head.”
‘Are you prepared to take care of someone with an EXTREME disability?,’ she asked while practically rolling her eyes. It wasn’t a question. It was more of an accusation.’
“His head was shaped differently, his ears were low set and he had an extra thumb on his hand. ‘Did anybody see this?,’ I asked. My midwife nodded.”
‘Colds, ear aches, CONSTIPATION! Have you ever pulled a hard log out of a babies’ bum with your bare hands? I have. I’ve seen the devil, my friends. It was ugly.’
“Your child is power vomiting all over you and you’re trying to catch it like a baseball. And God forbid any of that makes you tired, GOD FORBID! Because Sensible Susan will start giving you her ‘be grateful’ advice.”
‘Test after test doctors would tell us ‘it came back normal.’ How? Why are they coming back normal? My son seems to be getting worse, NOT better.’
“I thought to myself, ‘How long has he had this? Was it something I did?’ I had so many questions. To this day, most of my questions still haven’t been answered.”
‘My aunt said, ‘I hope you grow up and not sideways.’ I was the ‘fat kid’ and my father was disgusted with me.’: Woman learns to embrace plus-size body, ‘Fat is not a dirty word’
“School bullies loved to remind me of how worthless I was. I became the punchline to every joke. The word ‘fat’ was used as a weapon. I quickly learned I needed to find a man to validate me. That if I got married and made babies, then I could justify my existence. I was so tunnel-visioned I ignored red flags.”