“When Erica didn’t act a certain way, she ‘punished’ her by showing favoritism to her other grandchildren and leaving Erica and Chris’ kids out.”
‘Chris came with baggage, his mother. To put it bluntly, she was toxic. From the moment Erica got serious with Chris, his mother was mad.’: Mom promises to never punish or mistreat son’s partners
‘I didn’t know who the father was. I continued to use drugs, until I received life-changing news. I was not expecting one baby, or two.’: Woman overcomes addiction, gives birth to triplets
“I began prostituting, and living out of hotels. When my daughter was 1-year-old, I left my 5th rehab facility and began getting sick. I assumed this was related to my hepatitis C. It wasn’t.”
‘My son has until this Tuesday to turn himself in. I love you, Josh. But the DEVIL returned this year. I made the decision to send my son to jail.’: Mom makes difficult choice to call police on son battling addiction
“Yesterday he called. He wanted to come home. He even gave me the address where he was staying. I made the most difficult decision; I called the police to let them know where he was.”
‘The neck of my womb was open and was 100% effaced. I locked myself in my bathroom and refused to talk to my partner, the midwives or doctors.’
“My baby was struggling through contractions and distorting her head trying to get out. I screamed, cried, swore and kicked as I couldn’t understand what was going on.”
‘When you hear, ‘twin one is fine, but…’ your life is about to change. When I finally saw him after his birth, I could hardly process the absence. It was a blank, featureless canvas.’
“When I woke hours later, my partner and I were met by the serious face of one of the pediatricians. There is no way to explain how I felt at that moment, other than devastated. I was convinced I must have done something during my pregnancy to cause this.”
‘His eyes would shake back and forth. He started throwing his head back, screaming at the top of his lungs. Something was terribly wrong with my bundle of joy.’: Baby’s brave fight against ‘worst brain cancer ever’
“Three doctors came in. They told us we needed to sit down and relax. Nothing could ever have prepared us for what they were about to say. I just sat there, blank. He’s just a baby.”
‘If she says mama, I can’t go through with it.’ I never would’ve imagined the child we adopted would be my own cousin.’: Young mom adopts cousin after being inspired by her own intrafamily adoption, ‘I want my daughter to know her roots’
“She never told him she was pregnant with me. To this day, he has absolutely no idea I exist.”
‘Mom! You’re white and I’m brown. That means MLK made it so you could adopt me!’ He grabbed his little brother’s hand. ‘Look! Martin’s dream came true.’: Mom with bi-racial family claims ‘different is beautiful in everyone’
“He was 4 the first time kids told him he couldn’t play with them on the playground because he was black. I wasn’t prepared for any of it.”
‘This was our secret. How do you tell people something this big, but also tell them in the same breath it’s not a thing anymore, and also that you have no answers or explanations? So, we didn’t.’
“He instructed me to go home, and come back in a week to find out. There are no words to describe what it is like to drive around, go to the grocery store, go to work, etc. and wonder if today will be the day.”
‘We talked about meeting all year. In a perfect world, they could have both been saved, but that isn’t our story.’: Parents donate daughter’s heart after infant loss, meet recipient family
“It was different with them — almost as if he’s known them for ages. We would give anything to have our baby back.”