Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
My Firstborn
As a lesbian, I know firsthand how difficult it can be for same-sex couples to have a baby. When my wife and I decided to have a child, so many variables had to be considered. We could not just stop using contraceptives or taking a pill, we simply did not possess one key ingredient needed for the manufacturing of life. Even then, when we had our sperm, we needed the financial element to afford the process of going through a fertility clinic for conception. While you could say that I got pregnant “the old fashioned way” with my first pregnancy, through an Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), it was still no walk in the park.
By Jessica Altman-Pollack5 years ago in Families
Our Adventures at Wormsloe
The timing couldn’t have been worse. My wife had been planning for months to attend a women’s conference in October. What we didn’t realize was that was the same week our kids, Evie (11) and Gideon (8), would have a five-day weekend. What a great opportunity for a family to have learned how to plan a bit better. Yet, with many of the pandemic restrictions still in place, the prospects for a fun-activity packed weekend, seemed bleak.
By Mark Lewis5 years ago in Families
Dawn to dust worrior
At the start, I though life was simple living and growing and learning. No it's so much more complacated. To begin, I had the most wonder man in my life til one day it all change, I let some friends tell me he wouldn't amount to anything, he wouldn't be good for me. I though maybe they are right, so I kinda cheated on him with some other guy and well in the time of blissed and being young and stupid, i fell for him. A short time went by and i became pregant with him, we get back from the hostpital and without letting me think about it, he goes and tell everyone. While im scared and lost and confused, he didn't care so he started controlling me telling to stay at home, you don't need a job i'll take care of you bits of lies. Little by little i started loseing myself, i had my first child, she was beautiful and wonder, after two years i finally was able to get a job with his permission.
By Kitty Laignel5 years ago in Families
Never Give Up, Even When The Odds Are Stacked Against You!
The year was 1992 and I had no major plans, direction or ideas for the future. I was in a very toxic relationship at the time and soon became pregnant. At one point I did make an attempt to leave and get away from the monster boyfriend, but my lack of confidence and fears overcame me. At first I thought I could fix him and make him a better person. I'm telling you that isn't the case at all. For a year and a half I sustained, physical, mental and emotional abuse beyond, but I finally got the courage to just leave him. I had to decide what truly was the most important aspect of my life. He would try every chance to kill me and I'm telling you that when I walked I walked not alone, but with God. I was bullied into signing legal documents under duress to give him custody of our child. I did try leaving at one point with my baby but he caught me going out the door. Believe me when I tell you that this past situation was so bleak and seemed hopeless, but I serve a mighty God.
By Teresa Carlisle5 years ago in Families
After Granny passed
25 years ago, September 13, 1995, my life changed. I am still trying to decipher if it changed for the better or for the worst. Regardless, that was a dreadful day for me. The one person that I knew I could always depend on and that I knew would have my back regardless of my stupid decisions left this world. My granny always had words of encouragement and her support was endless. She unlike others knew and realized the potential that I possessed. She also knew that my awkwardness and my shyness would prevent me from going for all that I knew was out there for me. Let's not even touch on her cooking. Those homemade biscuits with gravy in the mornings were simply delicious. After the passing of my granny, my life changed. I know I have said that already and I will probably say it many more times, but it is the truth. After living with my granny most of my life, I now had to move in with my mom, 2 younger brothers, and my mom's then boyfriend (he's now her husband). It was somewhere to live. It was a house but to me it was not the "home" that I had grown accustomed to and loved.
By Trying 2 Stay Sane5 years ago in Families
Childhood Memories
It's a bright and sunny, crisp, cool, Fall day. It is just a lovely day outside, perfect for taking a slow peaceful stroll down and around the way. But instead I'm stating inside with a nice cup of hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick in it, just sipping it slowly as I sit back in my favorite resting chair nestled comfortably in the corner of my living room where I have a bay window that is in just the right spot that with the curtains open the sunlight brightens and warms the whole room, I have my feet up and I'm just leaning back and I'm off in la la land and I'm reminiscing about my earlier years as a child, my most memorable and happiest years of my life. My story begins in 1979 the year I was born. To say the least I had quite a rough start to life but little did I know one special family was going to turn that all around for me. See as I was born I was immediately taken by the state and placed in foster care with a family that had 5 biological children of their own when they got me. Now some might want to praise that family for taking me in but just hear me out before you do. See when they took me in that was when my rough start began, I was just an extra income to them as the male figure was a dietician for the local hospital and the lady stayed home with us kids. I was the least of their concern, I was placed in a baby crib and left there to I guess just decorate the place as this family only had me for 7 months when I was then adopted and placed with the family that was going to change this tragedy that was my life. When I was old enough to understand and comprehend what being adopted was and what it meant I was then 10 years old and my mom was now telling me that I was adopted. And as my mom is telling me how her, my dad and my big brother became my now family and how I was so special to them because they got to choose me out of a long list of other babies who needed homes and I was the one, I was the baby that when they saw me for the first time they instantly knew I was the one they wanted to complete their family. But my mom said my story did not stop there, she goes on to tell me that when the day came that they finally was able to pick me up and take me home they were almost scared to touch me in fear they might hurt me, she tells me that I was so tiny for 7 months, so malnourished and sickly, just skin and bones, and my poor little girl area and legs and inner thighs were just riddled with sores and diaper rash, apparently when this foster family took me in and left me in my crib they rarely changed my diaper and rarely fed me, it is a miracle that I survived. But by the grace of God I was spared and given to a family who just thought more than the world of me and to this day as I'm now an adult at the ripe old age of 41 still thinks the world of me and loves me like no other, as do I for them as well. I really could not have been given or even asked for any better family. As I was raised and grown up with a mom and dad and an older brother, what a blessing. But this is where the memories that fill my mind today come in. As a little girl my most fondest memories take place in Mid Western Kansas in a quaint little town called Hays Kansas, boy did I have some of the best times of my life there. I remember in the winter when the whole town would be covered in a foot or two of snow and school would be canceled there was a park not too far from my house that had this huge and extremely tall hill that at the top of this hill was a chain link fence so you would not fall down the hill. Now to a little girl at the age of 3 maybe 4 this hill was the scariest looking hill but thanks to my big brother we will call him bubba, he showed me that that hill was not as scary as it looked, me and bubba would grab our snow sleds and take off to the park with the giant hill. Upon getting to the park we would drag our sled all the way up to the very top of the hill, bubba got in the sled first then put me in front between his legs, wrap his arms around me so I would not fly off the sled, and then bubba would say to me, Amy Jo are you ready for this, scared but excited I looked at bubba and with a smile I replied yeah bubba I'm ready, holding on to bubba as tight as I could he pushes the sled over the top of the hill and with a big and fast swoosh we were flying down this hill. Laughing all the way to the bottom the sled comes to a stop and I look at bubba with a big grin on my face saying again, again bubba again! So we would make our way back to the top of the hill and down we go again, it was a blast. Now when I got a little bit older and it was now the summer time and I had learned to ride my bike and without my training wheels bubba and I would take our bikes and go to that very park with the same huge hill and we would walk our bikes at the way to the top and at the count of three we hop on our bikes and fast as lightning we rode our bikes down the hill. Up and down, up and down we rode our bikes and had the time of our lives. Now as the years went by and bubba was now old enough to drive he got his first car. Bubba loved this car as it was not the traditional car that most kids would pick as their first car, no bubba had a car that no other teenage boy had. Bubba picked an old retired mail truck for his first car, now I know what you're thinking. A mail truck? Who would want a mail truck as a first car? Well let me tell you, my bubba did and he loved that car like no other. He took that old mail truck, and a can of dusty blue exterior house paint and painted that mail truck blue. In the back of this mail truck as you can imagine were these two metal bench seats, one on each side. Bubba had got two long padded camouflage cushions which he used to line the benches so people could ride in the back. I was to scared to ride up front as the passenger side of the mail truck did not have a door, so I took pleasure of riding in the back. I had so much fun riding in that mail truck because every time bubba would hit a bump I would bounce and hit my head on the roof of the mail truck. I would just laugh and laugh and not feel a thing as I was just happy to be riding with my bubba. Now as you can imagine as with any teenage boy as he gets older he gets less and less bothered by hanging out with his baby sister, because now he's on to new adventures as he's now interested in girls and dating and going out on the weekends and hanging with his guy pals, you know the normal average things that teen boys do, bubba got himself a girlfriend which gave me the opportunity to get on my brothers last nerve. See I was always the ornery one, some might say up to no good, I would say just being a typical baby sister and trying to annoy my big brother, to which I did so well. Bubbas girlfriend would always call in the evenings and bubba would be on the phone for hours or so it seemed like, bubba had his own phone in his bedroom down in the basement, mom and dad had another phone upstairs in their bedroom, and every night when bubba's girlfriend would call I would sneak upstairs to my parents room quietly pick up the phone, trying my hardest not to laugh and give myself away I would sit for a few minutes and just listen, then all the sudden out of nowhere I would scream into the phone saying " lovers lovers kiss kiss kiss kiss!" and then bubba would scream " Amy Jo hang up the damn phone!" I would hear him tell his girlfriend " let me call you right back, I'm gonna kill my little sister!" Then I would drop the phone and take off running through the house like a half crazed maniac because I knew if bubba caught up to me I was in for some trouble, I would go running into the kitchen where mom would be cooking and I would hide behind mom, and as mom is telling me " stop running in the house!" She was also telling bubba " leave your sister alone!' Now you know I could not let it stop with that. Right? So I would peek around mom cackling like a hyena and pointing at bubba saying " ha ha ha ha you got in trouble!" Then mom would look at me and say " and you little missy will be in trouble too if you do not stop antagonizing your brother!" Boy looking back now those were the days, such wonderful memories. Now to top that the holidays around our home were just as special too. When Halloween would come around my bubba and I would be busy coming up with our costumes and naturally I was into the ballerina and princess type stuff and bubba, well bubba was into the vampire and scary things like that with the fake fang teeth and the fake blood on his face he would come sneaking up from downstairs and try to scare the bejesus out of me and succeeded at it every darn time, not so funny then but quite comical now looking back at it. Now Summer has come back around and in North Western Kansas it seemed like every year when tornado season would rear it's ugly head that part of the region would always get hit the most and the worst so you can imagine the damage done to all the homes and roofs and whatnot, well our house got hit pretty hard that year and we needed a new roof and instead of doing what most families would have done and just called a roofer to come fix the roof dad enlists the help from bubba and they do it themselves. Well in the mix of all of this bubba climbs down from the roof to grab dad another bundle of shingles and on his way back up to the roof bubba steps on a nail, it goes all the way through the bottom of his shoe and we are now taking bubba to the ER to get the nail taken out and get him a tetanus shot. What a day that was. I could go on and on forever with all the fond and happy memories that I was blessed with throughout my entire life, but just thinking of those few has filled my heart with so much joy and comfort, and to think had my story began and went in the opposite direction I may not have even made it to this point to have the opportunity to write and share all this with you. God bless the families who have the capacity to love someone outside of their family so much so that they take babies like me in and raise us as their own and provide us with such great lives that we have such wonderful things to share and talk about later. And adding to that I would like to take my last moment to say Mom, Dad and Bubba thank you for loving me so much you took me in, loved me and made me into the person I am today! I couldn't love another person any more than I love you guys! Thanks again, your daughter and sister, Amy Jo.
By Amy McGuffey5 years ago in Families
Moms Who Do It Anyway
First, let me explain what kind of homeschool mom I am. I hate it. I love my boys to death (we're supposed to say that no matter what), but I don’t like teaching them. It takes forever and their little hands are so slow and they're so bad at things. I know I’m supposed to think it’s adorable that they suck at reading and writing and basic critical thinking and that they’re really good at making messes and crying for no logical reason. But yeah, no. I’m not a fan.
By Teshelle Combs5 years ago in Families
The Life of an Adopted Boy
Well it started back when I was two years old. I'm thirty-three years of age now but my adopted parents got me when I was two years of age. I was a very shy kid, didn't like to be touched and didn't talk much at first that's because I was physically abused and sexually abused.
By Anthony Mccallister5 years ago in Families
Untamed
I should never had to wonder why am I here for .. or what I want to be when I grow up.. It’s all right there from the beginning in that tiny brain inside that tiny little head . A perfect creation born with all the knowledge that is ever needed... from the minute you are born , people called family will put layer upon layer of untruths and misinformation and unknowingly will change you to the point that you don’t know who you are anymore. They will twist you and turn you and show you an elf , a bit of magic that everybody should know . So you are standing on your toes waiting on the big reveal. You look into a mirror ... and see yourself
By Betsy Jane Hiatt5 years ago in Families
Lessons in passing
Fourteen years ago in July, I lived through one of my hardest days. I sat beside my grandfather and watched as he took his last breath. I witnessed his last minutes Earthside. I had been to funerals before. I understood death. But, I hadn’t lived it. I had never been that close to a person’s last moments. To say that the experience was difficult would be an understatement.
By Tabitha Garifi5 years ago in Families
Losing a Sibling
Losing a loved one or someone that you really care about is never that easy. I lost people when I was growing up but it was different because I really wasn’t that close to them. It is hard losing someone close to you whether it’s a family member or a close friend. I’ve lost relatives and friends of the family growing up but the hardest one of all was losing my brother. My brother is the second oldest out of eight kids. Even though he was older than me, we were close. Losing my brother was one of the hardest days of my life. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a day before my brother had passed away that my mom had gotten a phone call from one of his friends saying that he’s in the hospital. After my mom, had gotten off the phone she just started crying while I and my two other brothers were trying to figure out what was wrong. My mom told us that our brother Lifi was in the hospital.
By Salamasina Matavao5 years ago in Families
Rules of a teenage daughter!
Are you hiding in the closet right now with claws on the other side of the door scratching with the monster on the other side calling out daddy? Well sir, you have a teenage daughter that is coming into her prime and you have no idea how to deal with it. As you are sitting there in the dark with the baseball bat that you are supposed to be using for intruders, thinking back to when the Ex-wife was going through all of this and trying to remember what you did then? Well I am here to tell you that unfortunately you cannot run to the garage or shed to work on something because now you are the one that has to deal with it. There may be times where you don't have to worry about it and they are on their "monthly flow" issues while they are away at their mother's house, but there will be a time that you are going to draw the short straw and have to deal with that issue on the weekend that she is with you. Fear not my friend, I am here to help!
By One Single Dad5 years ago in Families
