Today, Michelle and I are proud to announce that we will be hosting the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center on June 18th in Chicago, and welcoming the public on June 19th.
We can’t wait for you to visit. Go to https://t.co/swMRHuB5Y4 to learn more.
So emotional 😭💔
“You’re too small to ever have a child.”
That’s the sentence my husband left behind when he packed his bags.
I was born with dwarfism.
When doctors told us I couldn’t carry children, he decided that meant I couldn’t be a mother at all.
He walked out. I stayed. I signed the divorce papers alone in a silent apartment that still smelled like him.
For a while, I believed the silence.
Then one afternoon, I walked into a shelter.
In the corner of the room was a crib most people passed without stopping. Inside it — a one-year-old Black baby girl. Left at birth. No visitors. No one asking about her.
I picked her up.
She wrapped her tiny fingers around mine and didn’t cry.
That was it.
I signed the papers. I took Naomi home.
People stared at us.
They whispered.
They asked how I would carry her.
I carried her everywhere.
On buses.
Up staircases.
Through grocery stores and doctor’s appointments.
Through every hard year and every beautiful one.
And Naomi? She ran.
She ran faster than doubt.
Faster than the stares.
Faster than every limitation someone once placed on our family.
She grew into a track-and-field champion.
I stood in the crowd, watching her step onto podiums I never imagined we would reach.
I couldn’t bring a child into this world.
But I brought love into hers.
And somehow, I became the mother of the strongest girl in the world.