Daring to Hope

     BOOK REVIEW:   How do you hold on to hope when you don't get the ending you asked for?   When Katie Davis Majors moved to Uganda, accidentally founded a booming organization, and later became a mother through the miracle of adoption, she was determined to deeply weave her life together with the people she desired to serve. But the joy of caring for one person at a time meant investigating her heart fully into the many needs around her and often gave way to sorrow as she walked alongside people in the grip of addiction, desperation, and disease.
     After unexpected tragedy shook her family, for the first time in her life Katie began to wonder, Is God really good? Does He really love us? As she turned to Him with her doubts and shaky faith, God did not remain silent but spoke truths to her heart, drawing her even more deeply into relationship with Him.
     Daring to Hope is an invitation to believe in the God of the impossible---the God who whispers His love to us in the quiet, in the mundane, when our prayers are not answered the way we wanted or the miracle doesn't come. It's about a mother discovering the extraordinary strength it takes just to be ordinary. It's about choosing faith no matter the circumstance and about encountering God's goodness and presence in the least expected places, when life is a far cry from anything we imagined.
     Though your heartaches and dreams may take a different shape, you will find your own questions echoed in these pages. You'll be reminded of the gifts of joy in the midst of sorrow and courage in the face of uncertainty. And you'll hear God's whisper: Your hope in Me will never never leave you disappointed.

     MY REVIEW:   I have previously read Katie's book, "Kisses from Katie", though it's been too long to really remember what it was about. I do remember liking it though, which is why I grabbed this book when I saw it.
     I don't remember how the first book was formatted, but I was expecting this one to be rather like an autobiography, telling of her life in Uganda and the friends she had made and her family and so on. But it really wasn't like that. It is a tale of Katie's journey in Christ, of accepting deep disappointments, bearing the death of friends, praying for the seeming impossible and being able to hope.
     In the beginning of the book and through the middle I was a little surprised that Katie didn't mention her husband. It seemed a little odd that she would reference her (many) girls, but not he. Then toward the end he came in. She hadn't mentioned him since at that point they weren't yet married. No longer surprised was I.  :)   Then I was impressed that Katie was running such a functioning home and family on her own. I mean, she had a lovely sounding house, plus a guest house in the back yard, a backyard, garden, and don't forget 13 daughters!!! And she made time and space for ANYONE who needed a place to stay or was sick and needed nursing or whatever. She would have multiple family sleeping on her living room floor at times. It really was both impressive and inspiring.
     One thing I really was impressed by was Katie's response when she felt unloved and forgotten by God: she took bright pink sticky-notes and wrote down blessings EVERY TIME she thought of them. She then stuck them to the wall above her kitchen sink and clung to hope. That was neat!
     I would truly recommend this book, but if you're like me and like to know a little more about the person you're reading about, you should read her first book also. I could be remembering it wrong, but I recall it's being more a detailed story of her life than this one.

    I received a copy of this book from BLOGGING FOR BOOKS per their blogger program, and was only asked to write an honest review.