“She’s so big. How much does she weigh?”
Dear Society: Please Stop Commenting On Children’s Bodies
I Got Sober 5 Years And 110 Pounds Ago
“My name’s Erik, and I’m an alcoholic.”
‘Our carts hit each other. I don’t think it was by accident. I asked you, a stranger, if you were okay. ‘No, no I’m not.’ Then it happened. We both started crying.’
“I don’t normally ask strangers in Target if they are okay but at that moment you weren’t a stranger. You were a fellow Mom knee deep in emotions in the folder aisle just like me.”
‘We were exactly 6 months from the wedding when she broke the news. They had found a lump in her breast. My mind went blank.’
“It was cancer, and had spread. Here I was, married to the woman I will spend the rest of my life with, worried about how much of this new life my mother would be able to see.”
‘I was not planning to go this route in my life, I was not emotionally and financially prepared to quit working. You put tears in my eyes, a smile on my face, and I feel so grateful.’
“I went door to door on my street to find her!”
Before I Became A Mother, I’d Already Labeled Myself As ‘Not Enough’
“When the triplets were born I almost died. I remember feeling like I wasn’t enough, like I failed them because my first moments with them were through FaceTime.”
Someday, You’ll Watch Your Wife Become The Woman She Was Meant To Be
“You’ll try to fathom how the teenager you fell for all those years ago managed to become the fiercest woman you know.”
The Mysterious Illness That Changed My Life
“Hmm. My story. I never know where to begin. Should I reveal the ending at the beginning? Because really, there is no ending when it comes to chronic illness.”
‘I’ve debated on this post for a while but I’ve decided I’d show the hard parts of the aftermath of giving birth, and the ultimate sacrifice mothers make from day one.’: Mom shares candid photo right after birth
“Don’t ever discredit a mother. You don’t know the half. No one told me your belly doesn’t go down immediately. No one told me I’d be bleeding out.”
‘The phone rings. You recognize the number. Each time it calls you feel a mixture of excitement and fear. Being a foster parent is strange.’
“You never shake the desire to want to help them all. Stepping into this world shows you things you only had heard about in the news. The victims of those new stories suddenly begin sleeping in your home.”
‘Who are you?’ ‘We are sisters.’ ‘Who am I?’ ‘You are our mom.’ ‘Oh sh*t.’
“Dad is pretending he is asleep but I know he isn’t, because when we arrive next to his recliner, he is smiling. Not in a ‘Nice to see you’ kind of way, but in a ‘How was that quality time you just had with your mother?’ kind of way.”
‘If I count the times I’ve been told not to neglect myself as I need to be there for my son with autism, I would need more than 2 hands and 2 feet. Yesterday, I realized I’m not indestructible.’
“If you ask me whether I’m okay, the answer will be as it always is, ‘I’m okay. I have to be.'”
‘Goodbyes are harder now. When my son left for the military, he was 17. The next time I would see him would be when Chad died.’
“After 1 year, 7 months and 4 days, I got to surprise my son. All was right in the world for 14 hours. And, then it happened. He had to leave. It all came back. Panic. Fear. Tears. Why did he have to go?”
‘I was 29 when I found out I was pregnant with twins. I continued to use every 4-6 hours.’: Addict ‘didn’t want to die a junkie,’ finally gets clean for her children because ‘enough was enough’
“I had gone to Cotillion and Girl Scouts, went to Catholic school and had a family who loved me. Now I was a junkie. One time my mom hid her money in her pillowcase while she slept, and I cut it out with her laying on it. Birds fly, fish swim, and addicts use. That’s what I did. But my kids deserved for me to try.”
‘They choose you, you know. In Heaven.’ He pointed to my swollen belly, my twins inside.’: Mom realizes her children ‘chose’ her after chance encounter with stranger in hospital waiting room
“What I wanted most when I was pregnant? I wanted the fantasy. I didn’t want to know every gory detail. Because sometimes? You just need that one person who says everything is going to be okay.”
I got a text while I was at work that said, ‘Babe, will you seriously pray and think about something?!’ Immediately my heart pounds.’: Foster dad shares ‘miracle’ adoption journey, ‘We’re so thankful to be a family’
“It seemed impossible. It would have to take a miracle. The rest of the story is nothing short of just that.”
‘Holding you in my arms with your feet dangling by my knees, I was painfully aware it was the last time I’d be physically able. The last time I carried you, my first baby.’
“Last night before bed, after our prayers and book, I asked if you knew what the best day of my life was.”
I Caught My Son Helping An Elderly Woman Today, And I Couldn’t Be More Proud Of The Man He’s Becoming
“To say we are proud of the young man he is turning into is an understatement.”
Life As A Mommy Blogger: The Disturbing Things The Internet Has Said To Me
“Being vulnerable shouldn’t be an opportunity to be shamed, ridiculed, or embarrassed.”
Your House Should Be Dirty—Here’s Why
“I sighed and said, ‘I wish my house always looked like this,’ while trying to wrangle both my toddlers from touching or messing anything up in this museum of beauty. She looked at me sadly and said, ‘Why?’”
‘The day you were born Daddy was wearing this shirt.’
“When Josh got home from work – he saw Amelia in the dress. I asked him if he remembered why that shirt was so special. His whole face change in the realization of the significance of the shirt. He was so thrilled and picked Amelia up for a huge hug and told her why the shirt was so special.”
‘You sat right next to me and grabbed my daughter. My biggest regret is not taking a picture of you.’: Mom thanks woman for act of kindness on flight, ‘You saved me from a breakdown 35,000 ft in the air’
“I was flying back to the city I grew up in to say goodbye to my dying father with 7-month-old twins. They were feeding off my frantic energy and everything exploded half way through the flight. Tears fell from all 3 of our faces. While everyone rolled their eyes, you jumped in during my darkest hour without skipping a beat.”
‘My leg is tingling!’ The morphine wore off. My heartbeat stopped, then my baby’s. I blacked out.’: Mom suffers from PTSD after child loss, now pregnant with rainbow baby, ‘I will always love her’
“I was so close to death. Around 2 a.m. my labor completely kicked in. I fell back asleep until I felt something ‘down there.’ I moved my hand and felt my daughter’s head. ‘They couldn’t find a heartbeat.’ Not a dry eye ever left my room. I saw her still heart, the same heart chambers that were beating so perfectly just a month before. My baby girl was gone.”
My Child Breastfed For 54 Months, And There’s Nothing Wrong With It
“Sometimes when people hear that my children nurse for much longer than what is seen as normal, they get weird and disgusted. This is exactly why we are so passionate about these photos and normalizing breastfeeding.”
Dear Child: No Matter The Highs And Lows, I Will Always Reach For You
“When you were shrieking in your crib, the pain becoming too much to bear, I reach for you.”