“What I didn’t expect was a visit from the fire crew that was on scene and who, like true heroes, tried to save that baby’s life. They came in together, stood before me and asked if we could all share a hug.”
‘I took a call of a baby not breathing. It’s the dreaded call. I heard the baby crying. It was short lived. I hung my head and tried to clear the lump from my throat.’
‘This is my ex-wife. The mother of my 3 children. The woman who brought all 3 of my children into this world.’: Husband honors ex-wife’s engagement
“We got married young, had 3 beautiful children and had a bitter divorce. Three years later, that relationship is much different.”
‘Erin, I love you.’ After 18 years of occassional likes, random comments, I awoke to a note on my table.’: Woman marries ‘stranger’ she met on the internet, ‘I can live the rest of my life with him’
“For years, I watched his life move forward on my computer screen. He didn’t know it, but the moments he took to talk to me were pulling me through some of my darkest days. Did this stranger know how much I adored him? That tiny note was the very first time I saw his handwriting, and realized I loved him.”
‘A push in the hall, being thrown in the trash. I dreaded school. I would end the day in tears. It wasn’t going to change. Why? I was an easy target.’
“They would take my glasses off my face and see me wander around blindly trying to get them back. Then they would settle for throwing me in the trashcan. All I wanted was to go about my day in peace, but things only got worse.”
‘Enjoy your first, You will never forget it.’ The officer paid his bill, and left a note for my daughter. I don’t know you Mr. Police Officer, but you made my little girl cry.’
“My daughter is a waitress at a local diner. She is also 7 months pregnant and working still to save as much money as she can. This will be her first child and she is so excited. She has a lot of regulars, but this was not one of them.”
‘When I was 18 years old, I felt a lump in my breast. I made an appointment and was quickly dismissed. This didn’t happen to women my age.’: Young woman shares harrowing breast cancer journey
“Everyone stops you and says hello and asks how you are doing. All I could think, all I wanted to yell is, ‘Not great, today I have cancer!’”
‘It must be stress’. The doctors made me feel I was making things up. This was all in my head, and I’m just wasting their time.’
“It was hard to keep it hidden anymore. The hope that these symptoms would go away was fading fast. I never told any of my friends or my school teachers because I felt too embarrassed.”
‘There’s no way! She’s crazy. I’d know if my baby had a genetic syndrome.’: Woman discovers son’s heart condition after chance social media message
“The doctor squeezed his little heart between his fingers. He came back, but my baby didn’t look like my baby. He was blue, but pale at the same time. Machines beeped. Alarms sounded. I looked it up to see other children’s pictures. You know that feeling where you’re so shocked you could cry, but nothing comes out? That’s where I was. I wanted to scream.”
‘I was petrified, sobbing into Jon’s shoulder. He leaned over and held my hand. If he wanted to leave the relationship, I would understand.’
“Jon and I met on an online dating website and hit it off right away. When I flew to Louisiana to visit him for the first time, we both knew. This was it. As I delved into wedding details, I was plagued by lower back pain that wouldn’t go away.”
‘In broken English he said, ‘I have a daughter. I don’t want to hurt you, but I need to please myself. Don’t scream because the police won’t help you. If you are good, I won’t hurt you.’: Woman recounts horrible ordeal in Mexico
“I got back to the car, it was gone. I had absolutely no clue where I was. I just wanted to sleep. Then, I heard him lock the door.”
‘His little voice begged me to wake up. ‘Don’t die, mommy. Don’t die, mommy.’ His hug, his kiss and his tenderness, lying next to me for hours as I sobbed.’
“Another fight left me to sleep in the guest room. My middle child, my baby boy, crawled into bed with me as my head throbbed and I couldn’t’ stop the room from spinning. Again. My loudest rock bottom came like a whisper – It was his touch.”
‘Rob messaged me. We decided to go out on a date. For the next few weeks, Rob and I were each other’s world. Or so I thought.’: Woman discovers her boyfriend is already married
“We stayed at his parents’ house several times, but never his. I began to suspect Rob had a wife or a girlfriend, and that’s why we never went to his place. He always had an excuse, and I always believed him. Then one night, he told me he had something to tell me.”
‘We got THE CALL. ‘Would you be willing to accept a 3-month-old baby with serious medical needs?’ We couldn’t say yes fast enough.’: Couple adopt baby with Microcephaly
“She was 6 pounds and 9 ounces of screaming, vomiting, wheezing delight. We couldn’t say yes fast enough. No one has positive news for us. Our girl had endured more in those first 3 months than most do in a lifetime.”
‘Megan silently handed me the letter. ‘I heard urine need of a kidney.’ My immediate thought was YEAH! I opened it and read, ‘Want Mine?’ WOW. I mean WOW.’
“She was my work wife. Our #1 goal was to go home safe every night. It said, ‘Turns out we are a perfect match. Not only on the job, but in blood and organs too. You always had my back on the road and off, now you can have my kidney.’ REALLY?!”
‘Mothers don’t shower often. Especially new mothers. When we say this stuff, we are met with horror. But it is the truth.’
“I remember finally getting the energy to shower, a place where I’d feel so tired that I’d read the shower bottles and stare into space while the water hit my back. I was a zombie. My husband came in and said, ‘It’s time to feed him,’ and I cried.”
‘After losing twins, we thought we’d paid our dues. Our life’s suffering was now complete. We were wrong.’: Mom loses ‘rainbow baby’ with heart defects, knows she will meet him ‘in heaven’
“We were overjoyed at my pregnancy. New life was coming! But scans and tests told us it’d come with major heart defects, a missing chamber, faulty valves, and an aorta split into 2 pieces. Blindness. Deafness. A cleft lip and palate. Still, doctors were hopeful. Until they weren’t. ‘He’s a sick guy.’ I was told this in a ‘why the long face? didn’t you expect this?’ kinda way.”
‘We didn’t talk enough, did we?’ My Dad would never walk me down the aisle or meet my children. That’s a very odd thing to discuss with your father when you’re only 23.’
“Having no family, no money and no home after believing your life was completely normal and well adjusted for 23 years can warp your entire view of life. I spent a large amount of time after the incident questioning what was reality.”
I Gave Birth To My Son, Then Found Out I Had Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Less Than 48 Hours Later
“Here we were, newlyweds for just 4 months with 4 children together, and now a very sudden chance I may not be around to help raise our kids to adulthood. I had too much to fight for.”
‘Hours began to pass, and still no Andy. I called him. It went to voicemail. Then I saw it. The paddleboard, empty.’: Pregnant widow still has no answers after husband drowned, ‘He will never fade from my heart’
“I was pregnant with our third child, and my hormones had gotten the best of me. I grabbed my phone and called 9-1-1. I started screaming his name, ‘ANDY, ANDY, ANDY,’ as I frantically looked on the shoreline that was covered in trees. I hear the sirens roaring, coming in my direction. My neighbor heard me repeating, ‘I don’t want to live without him, I want to die,’ as I knelt in the grass.”
‘I was homeless, suicidal. I walked into hell and found an angel. Her name is Sharon.’: Woman battling mental illness thanks strangers for saving her life
“I take the pills in my hand and go to swallow them, but something stops me. Cindy, my dog. I can’t leave her yet. For thirteen days, Cindy and I are homeless. ‘SOMEONE HELP US!’ I am coming undone. A woman steps forward, waving a flier wildly in my face. I suddenly feel HOPE.”
‘I didn’t realize how much I would miss my dad’s handwriting. Mourning handwriting? But I did. I still do.’: Daughter gets tattoo of dad’s handwriting before he passes of pancreatic cancer
“I watched him sketch out that second attempt and smile at it. He looked up and said, ‘How’s this one? I think this one is better, don’t you think?’ Maybe he was imagining it actually being tattooed on me and how that would feel, after he was gone.”
Some Children Are Just Born Feral And Can’t Be Tamed
“We have a little bit to learn from these wild at heart, freedom-filled, life-relishing little humans.”
‘Two women wanted to help us create the family we had always wanted. The funny thing is – we never asked them. They asked US.’
“My first comment was, ‘We need to hire some staff!!!’ I actually almost fainted. The nurse had to bring me a glass of water before we could even attend to Danielle, who now realized she was carrying twins!”
‘I was 15 years old and had been caught.’: Woman overcomes eating disorder and surprise pregnancy
“I know how you’re doing it,’ she whispered, then laughed and walked away. I locked myself in the bathroom while my he pounded on the door, begging me to let him in. I wouldn’t. I couldn’t believe what I was staring at. My heart pounded, and my mind raced. Was this real? Was it a faulty test? My baby was so tiny, but he or she was there, in my belly.”
‘All I wanted was to make it home. He turned to pull into my apartment but didn’t stop.’: Woman overcomes kidnapping and domestic assault
“My boyfriend didn’t pick me up, so I started to walk home. A man in an SUV asked, ‘Do you need a ride?’ He got right back on the road and headed in the opposite direction. It was so strong and out of place. I contemplated jumping out, but he told me to shut the door. He kept driving. The lights became fewer and the houses became fewer. I kept crying…I couldn’t stop.”