“I snuck my younger children out. My 10-year-old and I grabbed the only belongings I had hidden. As we walked quietly to the door, his music stopped! I whispered, ‘FREEZE, DONT MOVE.’ With tears in my eyes I thought this was it, he knew I was escaping. ‘Run, run now!’”
‘I needed to tell, in case I went ‘missing.’ I was terrified. ‘You’ve been talking again, haven’t you?’ I ran into the bathroom. ‘Mom, please come.’ It was now or never. It HAD to happen NOW!’
‘Oh, my goodness.’ I say out loud. ‘What mommy?’ I look down at my daughter. ‘Oh nothing,’ I say. The last thing I need is for my kindergartner to be afraid to go to school.’
“The hairs on my neck stood up for the first time. After picking my daughter up from school, I got a text message from my husband, a principal. ‘We’re in lockout,’ it said. It was unprecedented. Suddenly, it felt serious.”
‘When I was 13, my family and I moved into my mother’s ‘dream home.’ Just 8 months later, things would take a drastic turn.’
“It was a helpless day. We stood outside of our home knowing there was nothing we could do. At the end of the day, we had nothing but the clothes on our back.”
‘Just lay there, be still, your Daddy’s good little girl.’ I stared at the ceiling, remembering his breath on me. Finally, he left the room to start my bath. ‘You wouldn’t want us to go away, would you?’
“There was a window behind the bed. A woman came out of the building. I waved violently. ‘HELP!’ The woman stood there, looked at me, and walked away, going to her car to leave. My safety, my possibility of help, was gone.”
‘Our son climbed up to the top bunk bed and wrapped the blind cords around his neck. He then began to walk down the ladder, as the cords tightened.’
“He panicked and tried to yell for mom and dad, but nothing came out. We heard a loud thud. It will forever be ringing in my ears.”
‘Predators go where the prey is, and unfortunately, they see our CHILDREN as that prey. A paycheck. An opportunity.’
“Predators take advantage of a moment a child is mad at their parents, and builds a wedge between them. Predators are patient. Children from our own communities are being plucked away from innocence and safety. This is more likely to happen from a false relationship online, than being randomly kidnapped.”
‘I’ve learned my lesson today, NEVER drive in a hail storm! I covered my infant with my body to stop her from getting badly injured.’
“The hail blew out our windows. I could feel the hail like pins and needles on my back.”
‘My daughter started kindergarten like most 5-year-olds. We had no idea her first year was going to test us in ways we couldn’t even imagine. Teachers noticed her making weird movements.’
“The doctor walked in the room, looked at the video and told me she is making all of this up. ‘It’s all in her head,’ and I should take her to a psychiatrist.”
‘Well, Bobbie, that’s just what men do,’ she said to me tenderly. ‘My uncle did that to me too.’
“My eyes grew large as I looked at her and said, ‘No. That is not what men do.'”
Why parents of trans kids are a SPECIAL kind of tired.
“We are running to doctors to treat urinary tract infections because they held their pee all day, so they didn’t have to use the bathroom in which they feel unsafe. They just want to live. And we just want them to live.”