Love What Matters

‘Mom, that boy said Judah looked weird.’ I knew. I saw. I could feel the little boy boring holes into my 4-year-old, who has Down syndrome.’

“I watched him turn away and mention my son to his dad. That’s the first mistake we both made. We both chose to turn away.”

‘Each morning I wake up with the same thought. ‘Do I want to eat today, or do I want to feel skinny?’ I refuse my family’s offerings as they cook their eggs and pour their cereal.’

“I quietly sip my coffee and think to myself, ‘If I eat, I’m instantly going to feel fat.’ It’s a 2-hour struggle with fear and lies about my body before I realize I’m actually starving.”

‘I received the stares, the looks and many of the glares. I knew what those looks were really saying. I understood my life was no longer my own.’

“Memories flood my head so fast they start to overflow as tears run down my face.”

‘You both seemed fine.’ I said. ‘Were you two fighting behind closed doors or something?’ I was on the phone with a divorced friend. I didn’t know what to say. She’d been married 13 years.’

“Then I thought about the night my father left. He came home and told my mother he’d been having an affair, and that he was leaving. I remember it being church quiet. It was an eerie, weighty silence I didn’t understand then.”

‘It’s not my job to make you happy. Sorry, buckaroo. You’re going to have to figure that one out on your own. I’ll make sure I am happy.’

“’You’ve screwed up again.’ You’ll be out of this house. And when that happens, there won’t be much we can do to make you happy anymore.”

‘My phone rang. It was my husband’s uncle. My heart started pounding. ‘You were meant to be this baby’s mom.’ I remember thinking to myself, ‘Is this really happening?’

“I was warned it still wasn’t a sure go, but the odds were in my favor. As we closed the phone call, I smiled in disbelief. She was due in five weeks. FIVE WEEKS!”

‘Divorce. Maybe it’s time. I just don’t think I can make you happy anymore.’: Widow recounts time marriage almost ended in divorce

“There were a lot of conversations where I would literally tell him, ‘You don’t love me.’ On this rainy April day, I had finally worn him down. ‘No,’ I thought.”

‘Mom received a phone call, we must come to the hospital quickly. We were meant to be picking out baby clothes! Our world came crashing down. Life would never be the same again.’

“My Auntie came out of the ward, face pale and sick. I started saying ‘no no no no’. She told me I needed to sit down, and I collapsed to the floor. We were ushered into a small, hot side room.”

‘That word changed my entire life. ‘There are no known cures.’ I would never ‘get better.’: Woman diagnosed with Gastroparesis, Elher’s Danlos Syndrome, ‘I’m going to enjoy the life I have’

“I was on a fully liquid diet and throwing up daily. I felt like the world was judging me for not being ‘normal.’ I genuinely thought I might starve to death. No one can tell me what my life will look like in five years.”

‘There was a young family at the airport. Only one set of luggage though. He was freshly shaven, 3 large bags. They called for boarding, he picked his daughter up and kissed her goodbye. She didn’t want to let him go.’

“We got to our seats on the flight and he pulled out his phone. He was doing what we all do. He wanted to take photos for his wife and his daughter to keep them, but he was too embarrassed because of all the fancy businessmen who might see it and judge him.”

‘I arrived weighing only 3-pounds, with my organs outside my body. It was a complete shock to my parents. ‘Everything is fine,’ my guardian angel told my mother to keep her calm.’: Woman beats all odds after being born with Exomphalos, goes on to have own child

“I was bullied for looking different. I would get called ‘inside out girl,’ a ‘freak’ and ‘alien.’ It got nastier, telling me everyone would be happier if I was dead, and that I should kill myself.”

‘I picked him up from daycare. His little legs had bruises all over them. He was only 4 months old, so he wasn’t crawling yet. There was no obvious explanation.’: Son diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia after mysterious bruising

“My husband inquired about the bruising. He was told that, ‘babies just bruise easily,’ and the bump was just a birthmark. Our minds were filled with fear and uncertainty and our stomachs were in knots. Feelings of anger crept up inside of me.”

‘She asked if I was doing okay, and if my marriage was okay. I was taken aback and said, ‘Of course.’: Friend shares wise advice that has kept them happily married for 33 years

“She said, ‘When your husband comes home from work, and you’ve been running around with the kids all day, you expect him to come home and help you, and when he doesn’t, you’re angry. I rolled my eyes and thought… ‘Yeah, I know.’ She smacked me.”

‘Many of Micah’s behaviors are out of the ordinary and at times downright bizarre. The reactions of others to Micah and his antics have been varied.’

“I suspect most parents have an inner radar that measures the character of others by the way they treat our children, but this is especially true for those of us who are parents of children with special needs.”

‘Hey Sweetheart, how ya doing?’ No one had to tell me, I knew what killed him.’: Woman’s dad loses battle with addiction, ‘He was so much more than an addict to me’

“At 10:30 in the morning my husband called me from my school’s parking lot. He was there to pick me up. I collapsed in front of my students and wept. Two 14-year-old girls picked me up off the floor and walked me out of my school. He was loved. He was wanted. He was needed. I needed him.”

‘You have the perfect family.’ That’s what they saw. No one could have known what was going on behind our picket fence.’: Mom shares life with 2 special needs children, husband’s failing heart

“I smiled on cue. I showed up to play dates. I dressed my kids well. But I kept all the other stuff hidden. I opened a private Instagram account and used it as a journal, as a means to post the not-so-pretty. I felt so icky about my half-truth life. I was shaking as I hit the button to make it public.”

‘It was twins! In the back of my head though, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and our happy world to come tumbling down. It did, but not until later.’

“They were out of all other options. Phoenix was bleeding into his lungs, and they couldn’t figure out a way to stop it. The nurse was calling other hospitals to figure out an accurate dose of medical cocaine to administer. What?? This can’t be happening!”

‘We’d lie in bed with our backs towards each other. My husband got more comfortable on the couch than in our bed.’: After struggling with infertility, couple rediscovers intimacy

“We would sit there in our room, phones in our hands. We ended our time together with a simple, ‘goodnight.’ Intimacy no longer existed. When people ask us how we first met, we always tell them, ‘it’s a funny story.’ And really, in a way, it kind of is.”

‘I noticed she was losing color. ‘Something’s happening’, I screamed! ‘She’s going blue. I don’t think she’s breathing!’ My heart was racing. ‘Is she choking? Flip her around. Do something!’

“I watched her face in absolute horror. SHE WAS NOT BREATHING. ‘No, no, no, no! Amelia, breathe!’ She wasn’t just blue, she was lifeless. ‘Start CPR, I’m calling 911,’ I told my husband as I ran to get to my phone.”

‘I remember how dark and frigid the inside was. It was completely empty. Not one piece of furniture. Nothing. I wandered into a room off to the side. I walked towards it, and instantly got chills.’

“When he got off the phone he said, ‘What do you think? Should we do this?’ I asked if he had seen what was on the wall and he said no. I showed him the picture. When he looked back at me, he had big tears streaming down his cheeks.”

‘My mother said, ‘Doesn’t it bother you that she won’t keep a cleaner house?’ It was a Saturday. I was working on the dishes. I didn’t know how to respond.’: Man urges ‘our marriage is a partnership’

“I remember my father giving me this advice about picking a wife: ‘Stop by her house unexpected. See how it looks in there. You can tell a lot about a woman by how she keeps her house.’”

‘I was home alone, in a complete panic. So, I flushed. And hoped my toilet wouldn’t clog. I hated myself. I mean, I FLUSHED my baby! And then it happened again.’: Woman goes through multiple miscarriages before having her rainbow babies

“Two days before my boyfriend’s birthday, something told me to check. I had not one single symptom. I got excited! This felt different. I made him sit down and open all of his presents early. He stared at it. Stared at me. And smiled. He was scared, I could see it.”

Behind Every Successful Woman Is A Tribe Of Women Who Could Choose To Compete, But Take The Higher Road Of Collaboration Instead

“A tribe of other women who refuse to get jealous. Who refuse to compare. Who refuse to belittle, or go low. Who refuse to gossip, or leave out, or hurt just to watch her crumble under the pressure.”