“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.”
‘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 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.”
‘I was choking on my own saliva. I thought my life was over. Alex was laying on my face crying and I could feel his tears running down my face.’: Autism mom with lupus describes difficult journey, ‘The thought of not being with him haunts me’
“One by one, I will lose all ability to speak and move. I will lose mobility at an age that is way too young. It will take away from the joy I share with Alex, which is already limited and unfair. In the worst part of my life when I was physically sick and could barely walk, I was given the greatest gift of my life.”
‘He was throwing his head back and forth, getting louder. From behind me I heard, ‘What’s wrong with him?!’ I just felt like crying.’: Mom of son with autism says ‘I want a world where my son can fit in’
“He wasn’t babbling as much. He kept spinning in circles the majority of the day. I knew in my heart he was different.”
‘We are merely surviving as we fight it. We are going from one doctor’s appointment to a test to another treatment. Let’s be honest, cancer SUCKS.’: Woman’s has realization in cancer journey, ‘Cancer did not take from me. I took from it.’
“We didn’t choose cancer. It chose us. Getting up was a choice.”
‘He whispered, ‘You are not alone,’ and cradled this stranger in his arms as she took her last breath. Chad, too, was dying.’: Widow details police officer’s kindness during final weeks of life
“He was dying. He knew he was. The cancer was slowly eating at every part of his body, yet when he arrived on scene that day, it was not the first thing on his mind. He put it all aside to comfort a woman he did not know.”
‘The doctor said, ‘If she’s born, she will look scary and be a burden.’ My husband questioned my choice. I decided to walk this path alone.’: Woman births baby with Edward’s Syndrome, ‘Every moment is the greatest gift’
“‘Hello?’ I answered the phone, recognizing the phone number of my OB office. I can’t tell you how the rest of the conversation went because I was absolutely in shock. I heard the words ‘incompatible with life.’ I was encouraged to terminate the pregnancy and was told if born, she would look scary and would be a burden on our family.”
‘Each night I would go sit under the stars. One by one my kids would snuggle next to me to talk and I’d listen.’: Mom encourages us to ‘take a moment to leave work behind and sit under the stars’
“I remember knowing it was going so fast, yet I couldn’t imagine a day when my house wasn’t filled with littles and their every need. I now only wish I had it all on film to sit back and watch and wonder at. Younger me with younger them, frozen in time.”
‘A police officer pulled up. ‘Is everything okay?’ He wanted to talk. We stood outside for an hour, discussing the issues our nation is facing.’: Man urges ‘moments like this need to be shared’
“He didn’t pull out his gun. He didn’t mace or tase me. Instead, he took the time to ask me, a minority, about the issues we are facing and my thoughts on how we can fix them.”