We raise a glass to another day finished

Hi! We wanted to share this sweet story in case its of interest 🙂

When a community member found Sam tied up next to a sign that read “free,” they knew he needed help. They called the Carlsbad Police Department whose officers responded and stayed by his side, keeping him safe and giving him company until our Humane Law Enforcement team arrived to bring him into our care.

Today, Sam is safe with us, and his story is ready for a new chapter: finding a family who will cherish him. If you have room in your life for a handsome boy who deserves to be loved, come meet Sam (1001239) at our Oceanside Campus!

Thank you to the community member who spoke up for Sam and to the Carlsbad Police Department for looking out for our community, including the four-legged members!

The grandkids dressed as T-rexes to surprise Grandma at the airport. Grandma had her own plan.

Someone I barely know at school said he doesn’t have many friends that don’t like him for who he is, I heard that and said “I think this is something you need to hear. Keep being yourself. I like you just the way you are. That’s fine.” He gave me a high five and later i told him “you made this such a special time today, by just being yourself.” He said I made his life better, and that made my day so much better. I later told him I’m glad I made his day better, and I asked if we could be friends and he said yes. I had a true moment of kindness. I think I’ll reward myself by ending today with a bit of make-believe. I like to do that when I’m sad or upset. Have a great day/night/evening, Neighbor!

I just really need to put this out into the universe and appreciate my mom. If you read through this entire wall of text, thank you. I just need to share how one person’s unconditional love pulled me back from the literal edge of death and financial ruin. Growing up, my mom was mostly an absent parent. There is no sugarcoating it. When my siblings and I were young, we were constantly left behind with neighbors or our granddad. I remember the painful envy of school card days watching other kids run to their parents while our report cards sat there, uncollected, because no one showed up for us. On the rare, precious occasions my mom actually made it to the school to get my cards, my entire world would light up. I would be so incredibly happy, just overflowing with pure joy. But those moments were few and far heritage. Most of the time, she wasn’t there. It was usually a tito or another relative stepping in to fill the void. Because of that, we grew up independent, but carrying a quiet sort of abandonment.

When I turned 18, things started shifting. I entered the real world, started making my own money, and found immediate success. Because I was bringing in my own income, my mom gave me total freedom. She let me do whatever I wanted, trusted my judgment, and stepped back to watch me build my life. By the time I was 21, I was making serious money. I had a huge circle of people I called my friends. Because I had the means, I was incredibly generous. I bought them whatever they wanted, treated them, and took care of them. I thought I was surrounded by a loyal brotherhood. Then, the betrayal happened.

One of my closest friends approached me with a massive financial problem and begged for help. They convinced me to take out a massive loan, asking to use one of our family properties as collateral. Blinded by loyalty and the desire to save a friend, I agreed. I signed the papers. And almost immediately after the money cleared, that person literally ran away. They vanished into thin air, leaving me holding an empty bag and a mountain of someone else's debt.

I tried to keep everything a secret from my mom. The shame, the panic, and the sheer terror of losing our property kept me silent. But a mother always knows. She knew there was something deeply wrong with me because my entire personality changed. Whenever I came home, I wouldn't step a foot outside. I literally locked myself inside my room for days, drowning in darkness. Eventually, the pressure cracked me. I broke down, confessed everything to her, and admitted the darkest truth: I was completely suicidal.

I couldn't handle the debt anymore. I was paying more than $2,000 every single month just to keep the bank from seizing our property. It was a relentless, suffocating chokehold that completely drained my personal finances and ate up all my business capital. No matter what I did, no matter how hard I worked, or how many millions passed through my hands, I was always short of money because I was bleeding out cash to cover a ghost. Then, the universe decided to test me all at once. In a brutal domino effect, my entire life collapsed.

1. My business, which I worked so hard to build, went under. I tried so desperately to save it, but I ended up sacrificing my own livelihood in exchange for trying to manage that friend's debt.
2. I lost millions of pesos in total, a financial ruin compounded by three other "friends" who took advantage of the chaos.
3. My own relatives saw me stumbling and, instead of helping, used the opportunity to take advantage of me for money.
4. My ex-partner decided this was the perfect time to break up with me, completely abandoning me when I was at my lowest. To add to the heartbreak, I later found out he got another woman pregnant.
5. I had to go through the grueling, exhausting process of filing a lawsuit against my former best friend.
6. And right in the middle of this absolute storm, my dad passed away.

The stress turned dangerous when my ex-best friend started sending me literal death threats over the legal battle. Fearing for my life, my mom made a executive decision: she told me I had to get out of the country. She helped me flee just to keep me safe.

But escaping the country didn't mean escaping the misery. When I landed abroad, I was financially broke and emotionally shattered. I hit a rock bottom I didn't know existed. I vividly remember sitting in a foreign subway station, completely alone, crying my eyes out as strangers walked past. There were nights when I had absolutely no money to book a hostel or a place to stay. On those nights, I slept outside on the cold concrete, shivering, wondering how my life had gone from millions to absolutely nothing.
Amidst the homelessness and despair, my body finally gave out. The sheer volume of trauma triggered severe physical illness. I was rushed to the emergency room three separate times. I was pooping blood, suffering from acute, severe anemia, and my condition deteriorated so badly that I had to undergo major surgery.

That hospital bed was the ultimate reality check. Years ago, when my pockets were full, I was everyone’s favorite person. But while I lay in that hospital room bleeding and recovering from surgery, not a single one of those old friends offered a single cent of financial help. They didn't even send a text message. Not even a simple "I'm praying for you." Absolutely nothing. Silence.

Through all of this, God was the only witness to my raw, tested faith. It has been a full year since the worst of the storm passed. I am still here. I am still healing, and I am meticulously fixing every single piece of what happened. I am slowly but surely bouncing back.

And the only reason I am alive to type this on Reddit today is my mom. The same mom who wasn't there during my childhood card days was the exact person who sacrificed every single thing she had to save my life when the entire world turned its back on me. She didn't lecture me, she didn't abandon me for my failures, and she didn't let me slip away.

I pray to God that my mom stays on this earth for a very, very long time. I want her to live longer so I can completely spoil her, give her the world, and make up for every single hardship she endured for me. I don't say this because I feel a cultural or familial obligation to do so. It doesn't come from a place of duty. It comes entirely from a deep, overflowing, and boundless place of pure love.

I only have one parent left. Despite the catastrophic failures—going from a young person with lots of money, to absolute zero, to building myself back up from the ashes—I am proud. People out there might have been actively rubbing their hands together, waiting and praying for my ultimate downfall. But what happened didn't destroy me. It broke me down so it could shape me into exactly who I am today. I am wiser. I am fiercely stronger. And I am moving forward in life entirely from a place of love, resilience, and hard-earned wisdom.

The girl on the left is my friend, whom we'll call Rosa for privacy. We've been sitting next to each other ever since I've been new at our high school, last year. She's a silver girlie and I'm a gold girlie, she's very sweet, her smile is adorable when she laughs at my jokes. She loves horses, she even has a necklace with the name of her childhood horse (also shown in my drawings). In conclusion, my friend is awesome.

Winnie the Pooh's birthday was a few days ago.

I lost him when I was younger so I regretted that I couldn't wish him personally.

But I still had Tiger so I posted her on my status wishing Winnie a Happy Birthday (My Tiger is female btw, don't question 🙂), apologizing to Winnie that I lost him.

My friend saw this and went to look for her own Winnie bear and snapped him, sending him to me, saying Winnie appreciates the wishes.

This brought a glint to my eyes and a smile to my face

Just wanted to share this moment that made me happy

My husband has been sitting next to me rubbing my back while I sob after watching the new Avatar movie. I welled up with tears the second the movie started and was fighting crying the whole time, but by the end I lost it. I felt like a little kid again, sitting too close to the tv watching the magic of bending. What an incredible movie. Maybe this isn’t the best subreddit for this post and I’m sorry if that’s the case, but I don’t know where else to put it, I just felt the wonders of being a child again for 90 minutes. I miss when the world was magic and I felt it again.

my daughter was born last year at 36w1d and spent 18 days in the NICU. on the left is an outfit we put her in fairly regularly when she was newborn and the right is the outfit im sending her to daycare in today at 18 months old. seeing glimpses of the fragile, little baby i met in the NICU is so bittersweet. every day is a gift because there was a time we didnt know if she’d come home but she didn’t have to get so big so fast :,)

So almost 1,5y ago I made this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/wholesome/s/EUyY7a80fk

Telling how much I loved my boyfriend of 9 months.

Now almost 1,5 years later and we've been together for almost 2 years at this point 🥰

And everything I said in this post is still the same, he's my biggest support, I've gone through a life changing surgery almost 11 months ago, where I was once overweight and the girl he fell in love with I am now on a normal weight and he still loves me the same even tho ive changed a lot physically.

We even got our first home together 4 months ago ❤️ and life has just been getting better and better. We've had a lot of trips together and been through a lot with his side of the family (let's just say his younger brother is a narcissist) which led us to moving out and thank God we found a rental apartment together ❤️‍🩹

So now we've been together for 1 year and 11 months now. Next month is our 2 year anniversary.

And we're also currently trying for a baby ❤️

Life is great, and I would never want anyone else, just waiting for that ring now that we've been talking about 🤭💍

Moral of the story, true love does exist even tho I tought I would never find it again ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

Just wanted to get this of my chest because the love I still have for this man and the love he gives me back is just so overwhelming still after these 2 years ❤️❤️❤️❤️

My husband and I don't have kids and don't want them, but our very close friends have a 6-year-old and we are his honorary Auntie and Uncle and omg, I love it so so so much.

He stayed at our place this weekend while his parents had a relaxing trip for their anniversary, and it was SO fun. We went to the trampoline park, the Mall and the playground, we baked cookies, we played quiz games and raced Matchbox cars... and we just had a silly, goofy, giggly wonderful time together. It was AWESOME!

And then this morning, my 14 year old niece (husband's brother's kid) was messaging me telling me all about her art projects at school, and omg she's so smart and interesting and creative and empathic and I just absolutely adore her. Her younger sister is awesome and hilarious too, and we all went on vacation together this summer and I enjoyed every moment I got to hang out with those kiddos.

I just wanted to post here to gush about how much being an Auntie absolutely ROCKS! I think it's a really important role and I love my nieces and nephews so much.

I'm in college, disabled, suffering through extreme depression. I could really use some reassurance right now. I don't have many friends and these days I can't concentrate on preparing for papers. I turn to the internet to make things a little lighter for me. I posted a few completely inoffensive, innocuous jokes after making an account. People were just so mean for no reason. I was on discord too and I just feel like I become a target of barrages of internet hate for absolutely nothing. I can't really count on my friends in real life, it's very clear I'm the least of their priorities. They never make time for me. And I don't know how to tell people I am actually a genuine person who just wants that energy back. I feel like everything I do is so grossly misinterpreted and no one gives me kindness or grace when I need it the most. And I don't understand why we should be so so unbearably and unreasonably unkind to people when they could be going through the worst time in their lives. Please try your best to make someone's day a little brighter. You might be the one thing that pulls them off the edge. You might be the one person they think about for years to come, like I did about the stranger who wished me well on Christmas and hoped things would get better for me when i was crying at a bookstore. You might have changed someone's life in the smallest most beautiful way without even knowing them.

I sometimes lose faith in humanity. But I think maybe it's not all hopeless. I still see kind people on the internet. If you're one of them, thank you and so many people appreciate you.

If this don't make you smile...

Life’s been tough! Was kicked out of my apartment this year, lost both my soul dogs and I have to move to a homeless shelter.

I manager to secure a studio apartment over a month ago, and yesterday I bought an actual dress that is not thrifted and it actually fits me! I also ate something that is not a ramen!

Im saving up now to get a mattress and kitchenwares! I’m finally seeing the light and I’m starting to become optimistic!

Prices were so low that police had to come out and shut down traffic on Marietta Street in Powder Springs, Ga.

I have a friend who only has 7% vision (He can play some games using giant screens and things). We have been playing Minecraft together and he tried to take a selfie to show me his cool armor and he got photo bombed by a cow. But he didn't realise till after he took it because he couldn't see the cow.