Last names are an interesting thing. Everyone has one and you really have no say in what it is. You use your last name for reservations, work paperwork, and really in every aspect of your life. You are either born with your given last name or married into it and at that point most people just accept their last name. You could legally change it, but who really wants to go through the process.

I was living in New York City and visibly pregnant, when I got into a Lyft after dinner with friends. The driver congratulated me. I thanked him, and asked if he had any children. “I do!” he replied, “I have a daughter who is 14.”

When our children are small we revel in the joy they gather from the smallest things—biting into a sharp apple, playing with their shadow, squeezing mud through their fingers or hearing a new sound. We see the world anew again marveling at how we ‘missed’ the discovery of everyday things until they came along. It is although blinkers have fallen away. We record their first steps, their height on a doorway, photograph their birthdays and vacation adventures. As our children grow and experience the world around them we offer our own insights, our own experiences and gradually they gather their own knowledge of the sights, sounds and smells.

The endless back and forth, the texts, the emails, the drop off and pick ups, holidays, lawyers… there’s no end to the problems that come up when coparenting with an Impossible Ex. We’re exhausted, overwhelmed, sick and tired.

When I grew up my backyard was the community. I was fortunate enough to to live on the outskirts of suburbia along with my brother and sister.

For many women, and I know for me, finding out you are pregnant comes with an onslaught of thoughts shortly after seeing that little red line. Many questions come to mind. How will my life change when this baby is born? Am I ready to become a parent? Will I have a boy or a girl? Is labor really as painful as it is made out to be on TV? Among all of these questions, one that lingers and continues to become more and more of a question an expectant mother wants to figure out an answer to is: Should I continue working or become a stay at home mom?

Divorce affects every child differently. However, all children of divorce do best when both parents stay actively involved in their lives. This continuing connection makes a positive difference for children of all ages—even teens—minimizing the fact that their parents no longer live together.

According to the every-now-and-then reminder notice from Facebook (also known as Memories), it's been six years since I took Alex to a celebratory lunch after we attended his graduation ceremony for promoting from Tevis Junior High School to Stockdale High School. I was so proud of him, and it was some rare quality time he and I would share that became less and less common as he got older, and I moved farther away.

How can this be? I know I am a woman at heart, but am a father... of four boys, nonetheless. As if raising four boys to become amazing men wasn’t full of its own challenges. Throw my being transgender and it’s quite an adventure. How lucky am I though to be a parent of blood borne children! I am so blessed!

I had failed, that’s all I could think. I was a failure as a parent, a foster parent and a decent human being. In training, they all but said that if we disrupted it was all our fault because we weren’t trying hard enough. (Disrupted means asking a child to be removed from your home before they are reunified, sent to live with relatives, or moved to their forever home). I had tried so hard, but I just couldn’t take it anymore and this child and our family was suffering because of it.

“I couldn’t be a Foster Parent, I worry I would get attached.”

The endless back and forth, the texts, the emails, the drop off and pick ups, holidays, lawyers… there’s no end to the problems that come up when coparenting with an Impossible Ex. We’re exhausted, overwhelmed, sick and tired.

Having a schedule for a baby is not easy and most times things don’t work to that schedule. This is mainly because baby’s feedings and naps goes by cue.

My daughter sends me a text yesterday, “Can you send me all the insurance info. I’m at urgent care for an infection from a spider bite. Now I have shortness of breath, constant nausea, fever and super low blood pressure.” I take a picture of our insurance card with my phone and text it to her with a message to call me after she is out of the urgent care center.

When our children are small we revel in the joy they gather from the smallest things—biting into a sharp apple, playing with their shadow, squeezing mud through their fingers or hearing a new sound. We see the world anew again marveling at how we ‘missed’ the discovery of everyday things until they came along. It is although blinkers have fallen away. We record their first steps, their height on a doorway, photograph their birthdays and vacation adventures. As our children grow and experience the world around them we offer our own insights, our own experiences and gradually they gather their own knowledge of the sights, sounds and smells.

When I grew up my backyard was the community. I was fortunate enough to to live on the outskirts of suburbia along with my brother and sister.

My aunt is very aggravating. For the sake of privacy (not that I'm sure she will ever read this, but still), I'm going to call her "Becky." Everyone has a Becky in their life. As I go on to describe the defining features of a Becky, I'm sure you'll be to pick out which family member or friend is your Becky.

When Ruthie Ann was halfway out the birth canal, the doctor told Brenda to take a deep breath and prepare to push. When she did, Ruthie’s fragile, premature, little body slipped back into the birth canal, depriving her of precious oxygen for 45 seconds. In a panic, the doctor reached inside and pulled Ruthie into the world. It seemed as though the physician made a horrible mistake, which would ultimately lead to Ruth Ann’s physical disability, later diagnosed as Cerebral Palsy. However, because I am from the non-physical world and understand things from a higher perspective, I will tell you that this event was no accident caused by a doctor. In actuality, this act was the fulfillment of Ruthie’s own spiritual destiny. In a spiritual sense, she already knew the difficulties she was about to encounter in this lifetime. In a moment, her spirit hesitated as she tried to retreat to the warmth and comfort of her mother’s womb just one second before she was fully present in the physical world. It was in that second Ruthie questioned her resolve to fulfill her destiny. She did not feel ready to endure such hardships in the life that lay ahead. Understandably she tried to escape the difficulties that she would face by retreating back into her mother’s womb.

Yes, that’s what she was called. I don’t know if I ever remembered her given name. But Aunt Mute it was.

Last names are an interesting thing. Everyone has one and you really have no say in what it is. You use your last name for reservations, work paperwork, and really in every aspect of your life. You are either born with your given last name or married into it and at that point most people just accept their last name. You could legally change it, but who really wants to go through the process.

It was terminal, that's what the doctor said. Mary now had at most 12 months to live. What does anyone do with news like this? Most people would say knock at least three things off your bucket list, but Mary was a type of person who got on her bucket list at the age of 15 and knocked everything off.

For a girl, what is being a bride today? Perhaps there is not much difference these days being a bride and being a girl before being a bride. Girls are demanding these days. They have their conditions when they want to marry.

Families gathered huddling in small circles waiting for their future concert musician to come out. We had just finished Landon—my eldest grandson’s—Middle School holiday concert. He is a violinist.

From the outside looking in, most individuals have no idea what it is like to become a caregiver. The caregiver and patient can go through many emotions such as loneliness, helplessness, guilt, stress, anger, resentment, fear, anxiety, grief, sadness, and depression for different reasons.

I am not a writer. If you've arrived here hoping to see something wonderfully written with proper grammar, you're probably in the wrong place. This is more or less a therapy session. A story of my life. It begins with my earliest memory and ends with my first real tragedy at the age of nine.

Hello, my name is Lilithea Marie-Kathrine(Kat-reen) Adasia. I am going on 35 and have the most wonderful partner in my life that has been at my side for 10+ years and counting. I have been in remission from cancer for a little over a year. I am educated. Have an alright family, I mean I can't lie. There are a few apples on this tree we have tried to nudge out of the orchard, but what family doesn't have at least one? Overall, it seems like a great life, but deep in the center is a huge dark void. A black hole, slowly sucking everything into it and I can't find anything to fill it, to plug it, to satisfy its voracious hunger of everything else in my life. I know what caused it, I know what is supposed to be there, but life, as fickle as it is, has chosen to leave my life void of what it needs.

She looked at the clock while having a sip of the hot coffee she bought from the machine in the office. It was disgusting, but it would at least give her enough strength to get through the hours that she had left. Just two more and then Friday would be over. She could only think of what she was going to have for dinner, followed by getting into bed to watch a random show on Netflix—something that would make her forget about the day.

Tired mums and dads all around the world are way too familiar with the trouble of getting their children to sleep. Thankfully, there is enough input from experienced parents to help ensure that your toddler stays asleep through the night.

Adding a new pet to your family can be both exciting and challenging. There are many things you have to take into consideration, when it comes to adopting a new animal and bringing them into your home. To help make the best selection based upon your preferences, family, and lifestyle, consider some of the tips listed below.

Home should be the safest place for you and your family. However, it is a sad fact of life that, even at home you and your family are not completely safe. There are still a lot of dangers that exist in a home. Here are some ways that you can protect your family at home.

I was living in New York City and visibly pregnant, when I got into a Lyft after dinner with friends. The driver congratulated me. I thanked him, and asked if he had any children. “I do!” he replied, “I have a daughter who is 14.”

By Nattalie Gordon

They say when you're in your twenties, you go through “Phases” that occur at certain points in life. These phases shift the person you are to start a new point. But as we go through our shifts, we take hits that ultimately affect us as we move on… Well at least try to. These hits are turn into our “Issues,” and if those issues are not given their much-needed attention, over time we’ll have to work twice as hard to survive the emotional hell that is our life. I see life as a plant; the seed is planted and if nurtured correctly, it will blossom into something beautiful. It will eventually lose life when the roots are no longer able to be nurtured and cared for anymore or if something gets in the way of its life cycle.

If your children are home from school because it is snowing too much to go, then you may be stuck with ideas to entertain them for the day. Here are some activities to do to stay warm and cozy, and make your snow day as fun as possible.

To say the least, my life is a fucking train wreck at the moment as it has been for quite a while. I thought I may have had it all in check at sometimes, but it would always come crumbling down every time that thought ever entered my mind. Usually they say get therapy, or connect with nature, but what if your body, your soul and mind don’t allow you to do that, and each day spent in bed becomes the reason for this suffering. What do we do then? Not a single person’s words are going to help, be it good or bad ones. The bad ones just constantly hurt, and the good ones you're questioning yourself about. Like is this really true, am I really a beautiful, clever, and confident individual. This feeling leaves you questioning the slightest of things, as well as the most important ones, such as your own life.

Introduction

I don’t know what else to do or what else I could say. My heart is heavy. My mind can’t stop thinking about the upcoming hearing. What is believed to be the last hearing. The final decision of who gets custody or what is in the best interest of Chandler.

Today I teared up as I set up your "Big Boy Bed." A full sized, single bed, all for you. Pushed up against your bedroom wall with its little side table and crisp, new dark blue bedding. With the creases still in from where it had been packaged, and two pillows. You had never had two pillows before. I didn't know why it was making me so emotional really, and I felt a bit stupid when your Dad realised I was crying. After all my main goal for the past week had been to get your new room finished. But now with everything nearly done and your new bed all set up here I was, standing in the middle of it all when I should have felt relieved, crying. 


I don't think I ever fully appreciated my parents and the home they have given me until the day I returned knowing my stay would be finite and soon ending.

"I hate my life! I hate my life! I want to get out! I want all of this to end!" I screamed angrily into my pillow. It was not a loud scream, but a soft one with all the ferociousness and intensity from my body of a loud one... I do not have the privilege of letting out my frustrations for the neighbor and their dog to hear.

Today I went out with family! Mom found my sister who was missing for months, and we decided to celebrate. She was not hurt, she was a bit dirty and looked like she had been hiding on the streets and stuff. Mom is gonna take her to get checked, and get her new clothes and stuff, and get her set up with an apartment!

For the first time in my life, I can feel myself aging.