Welcome Home: Our Family’s Journey to Extreme Joy by Kimberley Woodhouse

Back in February, I was given the opportunity to visit one of my best friends. While there, I got to meet Kimberley Woodhouse in person. Kim and I already shared a connection (besides writing a children's book on Twitter on a fun and kooky day. LOL!). Our daughters had undergone similar brain surgeries but for different conditions. The both even had the same scar.

While I was there that weekend, I had the pleasure of reading Kim's book galleys. I devoured them actually within two days. This book ministered to me in ways I never expected. If you've even undergone a major trial, there is something amazingly comforting and validating to hear another person's story that resembles your own.

But even aside from what Kim's book meant to me personally, her family's story is amazing and her message of joy in all circumstances is profound. If you're looking for a book to inspire, uplift, and help you perservere, get this book.

I have one copy, and I'd planned to keep it for myself. But I can't do that. It would be selfish of me to hold on to this book and not share it. So, leave a comment. One of you will get to read this life-changing story.

About the Author:
Kimberley Woodhouse is a wife, mother, author, and musician with a quick wit and positive outlook despite difficult circumstances. A popular speaker, she’s shared at more than 600 venues across the country. Kimberley and her family's story have garnered national media attention for many years, but most recently her family was chosen for ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, The Montel Williams Show, and Discovery Health channel’s Mystery ER. Welcome Home: Our Family’s Journey to Extreme Joy, releases from Tyndale House Publishers September first. In addition to her non-fiction, she also writes romantic suspense and children’s books. Kimberley lives, writes, and homeschools in Colorado with her husband and two children in their truly “extreme” home. www.kimberleywoodhouse.com

About the Book:
Overwhelming trials . . . met with overcoming joy.

Kayla Woodhouse is not your typical twelve-year-old. Due to a rare medical disorder, she feels no pain, doesn’t sweat, and needs protective cooling gear just to go outside. With her restrictive lifestyle; countless hospitalizations, including brain surgery; and the resulting mountain of hospital bills, what’s a family to do?

How the Woodhouse family has faced seemingly impossible challenges is a story that has captured the hearts of America. Millions of people have experienced glimpses of their lives on Discovery’s Mystery ER, The Montel Williams Show, and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (recently voted one of the show’s all-time best episodes!).

Now Kayla’s mom, Kimberley, takes readers behind the cameras to reveal their family’s journey as never before told. From medical sleuthing to cross-country moves, from freak fires to battles with insurance companies, Welcome Home proves that truth really is stranger than fiction. This candid life story reveals both success and failure and demonstrates how, even during tough circumstances, to shift your life from heartbreak to extreme joy.

Good old smudge gives this book a five meow rating. I agree with the little fur ball. What an awesome, God-inspired book!

Dreaming of Bookcovers

As a teenager entrenched in her high school art class, I remember telling a friend I'd like to design bookcovers one day. I had my first taste of that reality come true around this time last year, and it was my mother who reminded me of this teenage dream.

God had brought true a dream I'd forgotten. And now He's brought it to a whole new level—one that truly surpasses my girlhood whimsey. Here's the latest cover I've done and let me tell you, there is no way I could have done this without God. I was so nervous about whether I could do it justice that I prayed nonstop and even started to dream in Photoshop. LOL!

And working with Joan Shoup and her team at Sheaf House is an absolute honor and pleasure. You can go to Publishing Dream and learn the whole story of how this bookcover came to be.

And God, you are just too cool for words. Or bookcovers.

Where have I been?

Well, obviously not here. Unfortunately, I spent a week battling a sick laptop, which ultimately died, then had to deal with software failure. All this during my busiest design and writing time of the year! My bank account is so dry it sunk in on itself!

But I have been busy with some other posts!

Why am I standing by a funny-looking basket in a bright pink shirt? Go read My Disc Golf Adventures to get the full scoop. Looks like I'm a bag-toting player now. And having a blast! I love sharing this with my awesome disc-playing hubby and he seems to enjoy that I'm out there. I refuse to be a "disc golf widow!"



Then if you're still wanting to read more about my determination to stay connected to my sweet hubby, take a look at my post, The Physical Connection, over at Adding Zest. Let me know what you think of my four suggestions. This post was fun to write but really a stretch for this "prude!"

And stay tuned for more book reviews. I'm reading some great books right now. More soon!