If you, like me, do not have a special needs child in your family, you may not realize what all you and I take for granted in life. Not only is my son a healthy child, but I also was as well. So, to be invited into the heart and mind of a mother who is raising a child who has a variety of additional needs and struggles is quite humbling.
In Love Language: A Mother's Heart and a Daughter's Unspoken Love, Christi Johnson shares candidly, boldly, and lovingly of her daily emotions and tasks as she and her husband Jamie raise their two daughters, Hannah and Megan.
Christi shares of how she and Jamie learned late in her second pregnancy that their daughter, Hannah, was already showing signs in utero (prior to birth) of having microcephaly (a small, underdeveloped brain). She is honest with sharing her emotions upon learning this news while still pregnant as well as with sharing her thoughts and emotions throughout their journey since that day.
Through the experiences Christi shares in Love Language, I am reminded over and over again of how ungrateful and oblivious I am for the life I live. Christi and her family are a true inspiration to anyone whom God causes to cross their paths. The love that they all share as they grow together is a blessing to read about. I can only imagine how precious it is to know them personally. As a matter of fact, I do know a mutual friend of theirs personally and through her I am told what a light sweet Hannah is to everyone she comes into contact with.
While reading Hannah's and Christi's story, I laughed---I cried---I sighed in exhaustion for the entire family, especially Christi as the hands-on mother---but all-in-all, I rejoiced with them in their joy and love and faith in God as their sole provider of strength, hope, finances, wisdom, and peace.
There are so many nuggets of blessing and encouragement for the toughest of times as you read through Christi's well-crafted, self-published true story of her family's journey of joy and love in unexpected and often unspoken ways.
By the way, I was given this book by a dear friend of Christi unbeknownst to her until now! This review was in no way solicited by Christi and the fact that I received it as a gift did not guarantee a favorable review. I must say many thanks to Jami for blessing me with this little glimpse into the life of The Johnstons!
If you would like to purchase Christi's book Love Language, just CLICK HERE or anywhere else in this post that mentions the name of the book and you will be taken to Christi's website.
No comments:
Post a Comment