“My best friend entered before me. She begged me not to come in. I did anyways – I had to see for myself. All of her shoes were neatly lined up next to the foot of the bed. Her clothes were hung up, and her beauty products were organized.”
‘We heard this loud, echoing bang above us in the bathroom. Thirty seconds later, this scream came from upstairs. I can still hear it to this day. There she was, on the bathroom floor.’
‘I was starting to look pregnant, my boobs were huge, and I welcomed the nausea. The image appeared on the screen. I looked intently and finally asked, ‘where’s the heartbeat?!’
“I started laughing, mostly because it couldn’t possibly be true – I felt pregnant, I looked pregnant, and a week before, things were fine. I began sobbing.”
‘Before the doctor punctured my belly, my husband looked to me. ‘Do you wanna know?’ My fairytale pregnancy was being ripped apart.’: Mom’s devastation over shocking Lymphatic Malformation diagnosis leads to ‘pure bliss’
“I had no clue what to feel. I was so devastated that something was wrong with our perfect little baby. The only thing running through my mind was, ‘Please don’t take my baby.’ I never once cried seeing how severe his malformation was. I just kept thinking, ‘That that’s my baby boy. I was so in love.’”
‘She told me I ‘look like a damn banana’ and needed to go to the ER right away. I had been fighting horrible flu-like symptoms for almost a week leading up to this.’
“They sent me home with strict orders not to take my birth control anymore. I wish I had known this was possible. I met with the doctor and got the scariest news of my life.”
‘I was standing in line. An older gentleman said, ‘Why are you wearing that rainbow shirt? Are you some sort of fa***t?’: Man encounters homophobia for wearing rainbow shirt
“This man then goes on to mumble homophobic slurs to me, the whole time I’m waiting in line. I ignore him, pay for my food, and start to walk away. I then notice his card gets declined.”
‘She said I’d be a great foster mom. ‘Me?! Isn’t that for young people? We are grandparents, for goodness sakes!’: Grandparents take leap of faith and become foster parents
“We haven’t located any family.’ ‘When will we get her?’ ‘Tonight. Now.’ At 11:30 p.m., we brought our foster daughter, Laycee, into our home. Six months later, we got another call. ‘Mrs. Morgan? We have a 3-year-old little boy in the PICU. He’s been here 6 months and needs a home.”
‘She calmly said, ‘You’re a complicated case.’ I replied, ‘I know,’ with laughter. ‘No, the babies, this is a really complicated pregnancy.’ In that moment, my world shattered. I knew.’
“‘Are you sure your OB has heard the heartbeat on the Doppler? Maybe she is just hiding!’ I knew then, they were buying time.”
‘He looked at me screaming, helpless because he felt they were torturing him. All mommy could do was hold him tight, but not stop them. The room caved in on me. I wasn’t ready.’
“I took him to his pediatrician with no knowledge of what was to happen later that evening. The doctor walked in, looked at his stomach bulging out on the left side, and told me to go straight to the Children’s Hospital.”
‘That baby in the photo, the one you can’t see. The one who’s all snuggled up inside her mama. She did not survive.’
“I had been in the hospital for a week being monitored. I was in the safest place that I could be and under constant supervision. And then, it happened.”
‘What’s wrong? Is something wrong?’ He didn’t answer. ‘Chad, seriously, tell me what’s wrong.’ He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and leaned in.’: Widow shares the ‘best birthing story of them all’
“He shot back with a look on his face I had never seen before. Fear, maybe. Shock. Panic. Oh God, what was it? The blood left his face. He was pale. Almost confused.”