HuffPost Personal

"We need to do whatever we can to combat all of this. My research shows we have a huge problem on our hands."
"As beautiful as my experiences were, I was also confronted by the darker threads of our nation’s fabric."
"My heart sinks all the way down to my feet. Instantly, I feel the same survival responses as if my life were in danger: freeze, fight, flee or fawn."
"Being her made it easer to talk to people and make friends, but no matter how many years went by, I wasn’t her."
"Entire days would pass without me being able to come up with a single interesting conversation topic. Doug’s reticence certainly wasn’t helping."
"Within a week, I was so weak that I couldn’t even get out of bed. I was starving and in pain, and my mind was foggy."
“She was too young to know when a stranger asks you how you are, you’re supposed to say, ‘I’m fine,’ and move on.”
"More disturbing was the huge window on the south wall of the space. It had no blinds or drapes, so people on the upper floors of the building across the street could look right in."
"We will wait until you are grown to tell you how fortunate we were to live where we did, because if we hadn’t, we might not have had you."