An invitation and a promise for weary Christian parents of special needs kids from a parent who's been there.
"It isn't the long day of monitoring a child's precarious health or being hypervigilant about her mood and mental health challenges that weighs parents down; it's the wishing that things were different. . . . Resentment, not the intense care they must provide their child, is the parents' greatest stressor and source of pain." ---Laurie Wallin
Parents of specials needs children are exhausted. They've done all the research, consulted all the experts, joined support groups, gotten counseling, fought for the best life for their children. Often just caring for their children's needs and attempting to maintain a home maxes out parents' mental, emotional, and spiritual reserves.
Laurie Wallin knows firsthand the difficulties of this journey. With Get Your Joy Back, she steps forward to make a bold, audacious claim: in the midst of this long-term, intense task, it is still possible to have an abundant life, full of joy. The key to radically changing daily life and restoring joy to the weary is forgiveness. Wallin gives parents a lifeline to find that restoration, pulling them back to shore when they feel like they're drowning.
This book is full of practical, biblical insights and strategies to shed the resentments that leave Christian special-needs parents themselves spiritually, emotionally, and socially drained. Wallin meets readers right where they are, sugar coating nothing, but addressing issues with honesty, humor, and---above all---hope.
Read an excerpt: http://bit.ly/GetYourJoyBackExcerpt
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laurie Wallin strives every day to live out her message for families: that no matter the challenge, in Jesus they can have joy and confidence. She is mom to four girls, two of them with mental and developmental special needs. She has been a certified life coach for over a decade, and is a regular speaker at women's events and retreats, a popular blogger, and the author of Why Your Weirdness Is Wonderful.
MY REVIEW:
I could not put this book down! It is so well written and Laurie draws you into her story, and the stories of others. She has so many great ideas and the book helped me to see that there is joy in the life that we lead.
This book is written for the parent who has special needs children. Laurie shares how you're always having to be aware and it's hard to find those times of rest and joy. She explains how isolated you can feel because your situation is not the "normal" that others expect. Endless doctor appointments, finding the right doctors and therapists, and dealing with extended family members who may or may not understand, all add to the pressure a special needs parent feels.
I am not the parent of a special needs child, but I found so much helpful information in this book! I know that if I found it helpful, the special needs family is going to gain so much from it! I could relate to the stress that Laurie feels because of my own health issues and how they have changed my life. None of what Laurie goes through is of her own making and neither are my health issues but we have to cope and learn to live in the moment and find joy where we can.
The chapter that really resonated with me was about the church and how we can expect them to be there for us when others aren't. After all, we are all Christ followers, full of love for one another, and they will be there for us through these day to day tough times. Unfortunately, as I have found out and so has Laurie and many of her friends, the church is sometimes one of the hurtful places that adds to our stress. It helped me so much to read this chapter as I have had many of the same hurts and situations as these families. Laurie shares how to get past this hurt and move past the expectations.
This book would be so helpful to friends and family of special needs families. It gives such a clear picture of what these parents deal with on a daily basis and how, we as friends and family, can be helpful to them. This is just a wonderful book all the way around and I highly recommend it!
*This book was provided to me for my honest review by LitFuse Publicity Group
You can find other reviews of this book HERE
Blessings - Julie
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