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Stories in Families that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.

Warnings
I close my eyes and scrub my hands over my face. It’s the second “well-meant-warning” post I’ve seen in the last two hours: someone has written another article/interview/parenting critique to parents everywhere on the danger children are perpetually in. The title is something like, His Daughter Is Abducted Right Under His Nose, and it’s a set-up scenario with real people and fake “abductors” filming the events. Some poor Dad, (who took his kid to the park and pulled his phone out of his pocket to text his wife back and say Yes, he will get milk on the way home, is pictured as the ‘negligent parent,’ while two filmmakers ‘abduct’ his little girl and send my blood pressure through the roof.
By Alice J. Luther 4 years ago in Families
To Mom: My Surrogacy Journey was to pay off my debt.
Mom, when I told you I had decided to do something remarkable, you sat down to listen to me. When you first heard me say I was in the process of becoming a gestational surrogate and I was going to help a couple achieve their dream of becoming parents, you got so upset and walked away.
By AM4 years ago in Families
Meri Jaan
Dear Mama, I think I knew you were going to die. Okay, hear me out, I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but a month before it happened, I had a dream that all my teeth were falling out. Each and every one of them. One by one, they would slip into my hands. I would try to shove them back in, anxiously trying to put together an undone puzzle. In the dream, my gums gushed raw blood. My hands dripped with the aftermath of loss. I screamed for hours. At the time, I thought my biggest issue was going to be, how will I chew my food? When I woke up, I wrote it all down in my silly notes before, of course, texting my friend.
By mak 4 years ago in Families
Speaking Into The Ether
Dear Mummy, You’ve been gone a long time. Far too long in my opinion. But that’s the weird thing about life and death isn’t it? There is not enough time in life; we will always say that we wish we could have longer with our loved ones before they depart. Yet when the time does indeed arrive, the aftermath seems to last far beyond what seems bearable; there is too much time in death. That’s my takeaway from the past 13 years without you anyway.
By AM4 years ago in Families
I Need to Tell You Something
I hold the piece of paper in my trembling hands. The wrinkles from how often I crumpled the paper only to straighten it back out again as I changed my mind one more time making the material feel almost soft. I wrote this letter knowing that I would not be able to keep my thoughts straight without it. My mouth is dry, it feels as if I have inhaled sand and I lick my lips to try and get myself ready to speak. I know what I have come here to say today will be difficult. I look at the wrinkled notebook paper with its tattered edges from the spiral and begin to read.
By Whitney Roden4 years ago in Families
Thanks for Being There (Even When You Didn’t Have to Be)
A memory showed up from nine years ago. I usually don't bother with photo memories from Shutterfly. I just happened to be feeling romantic today, and wondered if there were any good photos of my husband and me. There were, but they weren't the ones I expected. I didn't realize I would be filled with emotion as I opened it. Tears flooded to my eyes as I remembered. You were the proud parents I always wanted, and thankfully somehow I got them.
By E.L. Martin4 years ago in Families
About Abby's Crutches ✨
Hi! Welcome back! 🌱 We are always asked about Abby's crutches - "'When were they introduced to her?' 'How did she learn to use them?' 'Where did we purchase them from?'" Today is the day where we share it all!
By EMandKids | AmazingAbigailGrace4 years ago in Families
meet Em + Abby 💕
I feel like an introduction was the only way to start in this new space ... So, hi there! Welcome! 🌱 My name is Emily and that beautiful girl standing next to me is Abby! You may have seen a heartfelt video floating around the internet of a sweet girl, in a Texas shirt, walking across her living room for the very first time at seven years old. That little girl's story begins far before her first steps ...
By EMandKids | AmazingAbigailGrace4 years ago in Families
Your Poor Rick
“We saw your poor Rick,” they say in the grocery store aisle. I smile, unconvincingly, and compare jars of spaghetti sauce that I don’t even want.
By Deidra Lovegren4 years ago in Families
Ready to Fly
My son is currently in Montana at my nephew’s house for a couple of weeks. He is running, lifting weights, swimming, boxing, and shoveling snow (hoping to do some snowboarding too). I have spent my days trying to stay busy so I can distract myself from the fact that he is not here. He doesn’t exactly like to hang out with me when he’s at home (he’s 17 years old), but I know he’s here. On the occasions when he wants to talk to me or show me something I enjoy the interaction.
By Dawn Salois4 years ago in Families
What to Expect When She's Expecting
Congratulations! You are going to be parents! Good on you two! Okay mate, I’m going to call you mate because mate, things are never going to be the same ever again… And by never again means before the little one or ones arrive.
By RG Hawkshaw 4 years ago in Families
Chocolate Applesauce Cupcakes
Today was the ten-year anniversary of my grandmother’s death. I was 14 at the time, and 14-year-old me didn’t really have any understanding of death or grieving a loved one. So for a few years, it was just really sad. And as much as I despise myself for this, with each passing year I started to forget the anniversary altogether.
By Jenna Bygall4 years ago in Families