The time is finally here- what we’ve all been waiting for. The countless hours at the computer, staring at the screen and submitting edits, the struggle between our heart and our head about whether we should write our story, the numerous phone calls to our literary team, and the emotional rehashing of every detail from David’s accident and recovery… We’re pleased to say this project is done.
Our book, “Walk Through Fire: One Couple’s Journey of Finding Joy in the Midst of Tragedy” will be released on October 1, 2015.
It’s been a very strange, but healing process.
At the beginning, I was filled with lots of doubt and fear. I doubted that I could get the right words on paper, so people would understand what our family has been through and find hope and encouragement from our story. I feared the process itself- I didn’t have the first clue as to what all was involved in writing and publishing a book. While part of me felt like we needed to capture our story before the details were lost, another part of me was wrapped up in the doubts and it felt like a battle for years. I dubbed these moments of doubt, my “Moses Moments.” Just like Moses, I let my head and heart play tricks on me and I lost sight of the fact that while I might not feel equipped to do a job, God is more than capable of coming alongside me and helping me complete a task if He thought I should do it. I wrestled with God, as Moses did, until I started to realize that God was actually calling me to write and that sharing our story was going to be a new ministry to share about how awesome and amazing and powerful God is.
You see, that was another one of my fears about this entire project. I worried that if I wrote our story, people would read about David and Carly and all they went through and think that the story was simply about David and Carly. But it’s so much more than that. We desperately want our readers to see God in our story and to read about what He has done in our lives and that David and Carly could never have gotten through the past 16 years without our loving, caring and gracious God.
The process of creating the book, “Walk Through Fire,” forced us to relive many of the difficult moments from the first year after David’s accident. In order to write the details for the chapters, we had to go back to some of the darkest places in our lives and remember. That process in and of itself hasn’t been easy. It’s fueled some flashbacks, some nightmares and some tears, but it’s also allowed our family 
the opportunity to talk through those moments again, as adults. Our son, Nathan, was only two years old when David was hurt so some of the things we share in the book are things he doesn’t remember at all, so we’ve gotten to talk about them again and helped him understand more of the story. Our
daughter Samantha, was only nine at the time of the accident, and while she remembers a few more details from back then, we’ve been able to walk through some of the painful past again with her now. Healing is a journey and a process that doesn’t just happen overnight. It’s been sixteen years since our lives were tragically disrupted and we are still, to this day, dealing with issues and emotions. We’ve tried to be very vulnerable and we pray that our readers see our transparency when they read about some of the intense and awkward moments in the book. We pray that by opening up and talking about some of the things that our culture doesn’t openly share about, will provide our readers with a better sense of who we are and walk away with a feeling of hope and encouragement.
Last week was full of emotion for us. We knew that our book was scheduled to go to the presses sometime. On Thursday morning, we received an email from our Customer Service Rep at the company that’s printing our book, letting us know that they’d be printing, “Walk Through Fire” later that evening
and we’d be allowed to go into the facility and actually watch them! I instantly had butterflies (maybe even birds) in my stomach. The rush of emotions was incredible and hard to describe. I’m utterly
amazed at the faithfulness of God. He equipped this stay-at-home Mom of two without any formal training to write a book. How crazy is that? He placed the right people in our lives to help us with this huge project and we tackld each obstacle one step at a time, with Him. God’s been so faithful to us in the past and it’s humbling to think that He continues to do so today.
(I read this on MinistryMaker.com)
1 Thessalonians 5:24
“He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
“God faithfully completes everything He calls us to. He typically calls us to do things we are inadequate to accomplish in ourselves, that way when they are accomplished, we know it is Him. Our confidence must be in Him and Him alone. That’s why we must never swell with pride when we accomplish something. When God calls you to do something, always remember, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24). God promises to bring you through to a successful conclusion in all you do.”
David and I stood in our kitchen and wept together and we prayed for this book. We prayed that God would be honored by what we have written. We prayed that our story might be a source of encouragement for someone who reads it and we prayed that God would place it into the hands of who needs to hear the message within its pages. We prayed that we won’t get caught up in defining our worth with how well the book sales are. We prayed that we would continue to give God the glory all the time.
Later that day, we watched the covers and the text of the book roll off the presses. WOW! What a feeling! It feels like such a sense of accomplishment. We’ve been wrestling for nearly sixteen years to write this book and now it’s finished! God is SO good to us!
That being said, we’re excited to announce that our book, “Walk Through Fire” will be available to purchase on October 1. Amazon is taking pre-orders now. We will be having several book signings in the near future. Our first one is at Trippet Hall on the Wabash College Campus in Crawfordsville, Indiana on Thursday, October 1 from 6:30pm-8:30pm. If you’re in the area, we’d love to celebrate with you.
Thank you for encouraging David and me on this crazy adventure!
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