I am currently working on a book about my journey through grief and wrestling with God
along the way. Stay Tuned!

While you wait, here is the introduction to my book.

Why do “good” people suffer, and what can you do about it? What do you do when life throws you down, kicks you while you’re down, then rolls you into a raging river with your hands tied behind your back? How are you supposed to reconcile the fact that life can be challenging, and that our number one source of hope in this world is the omnipotent force allowing challenges to happen? This book addresses those questions. It also reveals one of the most important promises God makes to us, and why we can trust Him and His character despite what’s happening in our circumstances.

As someone whose brother was killed in the worst school shooting of its time, whose son died, and whose brother died of cancer, I’ve questioned my faith more than most. I’ve wrestled with questions such as, “How do you surrender to God’s will and trust His character when it feels like He’s abandoned you?” And, “If God never changes your circumstances, if the trials seem unending, how do we keep following Him, keep trusting Him, keep having joy through it all?”

Most books about personal tragedy focus on one event, one moment in time. My book covers the span of twenty-six years and three life changing losses at different stages of life and maturity and the journey of my faith along the way. It will help you keep trusting the Bible, keep trusting in God’s character, and to keep trusting in His promises. It would be wonderful if faith was simpler: more black and white, more “do this and not that.” But true faith tends to be less of a checklist and more of a messy process. Sharing our stories with each other is one way to strengthen our faith. That’s why I wrote this book. It isn’t a step-by-step manual to unwavering faith, but it will help you see how to have peace with God, even when there’s no answer to the question, “Why, God?” Even when you don’t understand everything happening to you.

Have you ever felt let down by God, even abandoned or disillusioned about life? Perhaps you’ve helplessly watched someone you loved suffer. Maybe you’ve stood next to a casket as it was lowered into the ground, and wondered how life could ever feel joyful again? And maybe you’ve felt your grief diminished by others. I have. But though this memoir goes deep into the shadows of the valleys of life, it will lift you up. It will give you hope, no matter how beat up, brokenhearted, or downtrodden you are.
This book is not meant to compete with other faith-based works written by theologians, pastors, or psychologists. It’s meant to complement them. Those types of works are important, but it’s equally important for ordinary people to share their inspirational, real-life stories. That’s me. I’m a mom, nanny, and substitute teacher. Like you, I’ve been through the fire. And sometimes, I know, you just want to hear something from a person that’s been there.

I hope that by sharing my journey, it will help you through yours. I hope this book encourages you to keep persevering. I hope you feel encouraged to not abandon your faith, but to keep wrestling with those hard questions, and surrendering yourself to the questions that don’t have a good answer. No matter how hard life gets here, we can have hope in what is to come.