by Bonnie Overly When I was in college, my sister-in-law and I took a yoga class together. While all the ladies around me balanced gracefully with their legs around their ears, I spent most of the time on the floor laughing. “Down dog” was about the only position I could execute without falling over sideways. […]
by Valerie Best About a year after my husband James graduated from NYU, and maybe a couple of years before I started grad school at Brooklyn College, we had a little indie improv team. Our name was Albatross Applesauce, and we performed a total of three shows. We rehearsed plenty. We worked with coaches and […]
In episode 8, Misty told us about how when she was 18, she was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease that made it a really bad idea for her to have biological children, and about the first few disappointments she and her husband went through as they pursued growing their family through adoption. In this episode […]
At 18, Misty was a college freshman enjoying the freedom of life away from home for the first time. Then she got sick, and her life changed dramatically. One result: she could no longer safely bear children. Instead she and her husband have adopted 3 children—and brought many others into their family as well.
“I never stopped building my life,” Gloria says. At 17, she found herself pregnant and abandoned. At 18 she gave birth to her baby in a new country where she hardly spoke the language. Since then she has continued to work and to make something beautiful from the unexpected life she found herself in.
Best things about breastfeeding: bonding, still moments, connection, losing the baby weight. Worst things: lack of sleep, hallucinations, insanity, depression.
Many women experience fear during pregnancy: fear of pain, fear that something is wrong with the baby, even fear of death—their own or the baby’s. But not many women have actual first-hand experience with the realities of maternal mortality. Suvi does.
Lots of us turn to writing when life gets tough. It’s a proven form of therapy and it let’s us understand and experience our emotions so that we can untangle them and—sometimes—make something beautiful with them. As Jodie was pregnant with Anna, and realizing that she was not going to be able to raise her, […]
You’re 20 weeks pregnant and it looks like something is wrong with the baby. How do you spend the rest of the pregnancy? Jodie and Adrian tell us how they handled a worst case scenario and came out of it feeling strengthened, loved, and grateful.
There is always hope that out of every difficult, painful experience, there is something good to be gained. Lizzie tells about her own losses and struggles and her hope that Cocoon Stories will help her—and others—find a silver lining. Listen in iTunes here.
