“‘Guys, guys, guys…GUYS! Just stop for one moment!!!! Please for the love of all that is holyyyy…’ By this point, my Fight and Flight responses are in overdrive. I’m honestly instinctually ready to flee the home or drop kick one of them (neither of which I can rationally do).”
‘Vague bickering. Brace yourself, it starts. ‘I’m telling mommy!’ They stampede like elephants, each screaming over the other.’: Mom talks sibling rivalry, ‘Remember they really do love each other’
‘My parents detonated a bomb inside our tiny, thatched roof hut. I was supposed to die that night.’: Adopted bomb survivor now paralympic swimmer
“A woman with 6 children had a strong feeling a child was missing from their family and they were supposed to adopt. A week later, they were told a horrific story of a baby in Vietnam who had survived a bomb blast. It was as if we had both been waiting for each other thousands of miles apart.”
‘Mom, what color is my skin?’ I should have told you. Instead I asked, ‘Why does it matter?’: Mom urges ‘we are not all the same, but we are all magnificently unique’
“My dear son, I have a confession to make: I lied to you. I’m here to tell you today, I was wrong.”
‘It’s like having a neighbor from hell, but the annoying neighbor is your own brain and they’re never moving out. You’re stuck with them forever.’: Woman advocates for neurodiversity, ‘The hardest battle is the one I fight against myself every day’
“You know you have to be up at 4:15 for work, but the neighbor’s throwing a party again and you can’t get to sleep. You’re constantly frustrated. I wanted to address it. I needed to address it.”
‘Our baby is going to die.’ Harper spiked a 106-degree fever. ‘She has a 1% chance of making it to her first birthday.’: Mom births miracle baby with Trisomy 18
“The doctor said, ‘These kind of babies do not make it full term and if the baby is born alive, they only live a few days…a week at most.’ Weeks later we were told, ‘We can’t find any markers.’ They couldn’t see any holes in her heart and all of her other signs had disappeared. She looked perfect. My husband and I were lost and confused.”
‘I vividly recall my phone ringing. ‘Uh, Meg is pushing out your child RIGHT NOW.’ Instead of Ethan’s dad, my sister cut the cord.’: Veteran details birth during husband’s deployment, ‘He is our proof miracles do happen’
“I tried to call my husband. No matter how many times, I got no answer. In my heart I knew his phone going straight to voicemail, which meant he was in transit from the United States to the Middle East. Jay was ready to go fight and defend our country, while his wife was giving birth on the other side of the world, to a child who was born too early.”
‘There’s nothing out in the world for me past dark.’ Ernest doesn’t work after dinnertime, because it isn’t safe for him.’: Woman urges ‘start by listening and lifting each other up’
“I am a 45 year-old white woman living in the south, and today was the first time I spoke frankly about racism with a black man. His answers were illuminating.”
‘It’s like a virus,’ the counselor says. ‘It wants to keep living inside you.’ Nobody should have to experience it.’: Young woman details severe depression, ‘Show yourself some compassion’
“I think to myself, ‘It sounds nice to pick up my guitar again. I can pull out some of my watercolors. I can call a friend.’ But a few days later, I still haven’t done any of those things. It feels overwhelming and pointless.”
‘I saw a young teen publicly thanked his parents. ‘Thank you for giving me everything I want.’: Mom says ‘we have to learn not everything in life goes our way’
“It wasn’t a generic, thanks-for-all-that-you-do kind of thing. This one stopped me in my tracks.”
‘We sat our children, 8 and 3, down. ‘Your sister’s bones didn’t grow like yours. She could die during birth.’ They couldn’t stop crying.’: Mom births miracle baby with Skeletal Dysplasia
“The size of her head was measuring 39 weeks while the rest of her body wasn’t. The doctor slid a paper with information on it. ‘We need to induce you.’ I didn’t sleep the night before. At 5 a.m. we made the 45-minute drive to the hospital to find out I was already in active labor, and I was positive for Strep. There wasn’t a dry eye in the delivery room.”