Heartrending, amazing, horrific, redemptive, abuse, forgiveness. This book has it all. I feel like this has to be a true story because you can't make stuff like this up.

Debra is a foster mom and takes in a family of five. I don't want to give a lot of details, but there was an unprecedented order to send the children back to their mom. This caused great concern and well it should have for the end result.

But then Debra is asked to do a really hard thing and she wants to say no so very bad, but she feels God telling her to say yes and it leads to something beautiful, but still hard.

I don't know how to describe this book without giving any spoilers, but it was so good and so sad and so redemptive and so heart-wrenching. But it was amazing to see God at work in changing lives and providing forgiveness even though there are still consequences for sin.

"But life isn't a fairy tale, and we are not owed blissful happy endings. We are called to run the race marked out for us until we are called heavenward...." This was so good and so needed now in my own life when I want hard things to just go away and let me live happily ever after.

"It is through heartache, heartbreak, and pain that I grow you, Deb. But I have given you a free will so that you can choose. Will you live or become bitter and die? Will you allow me to work in your life in the way I see best to encourage the most positive possible outcome, or will you be satisfied to live small and crippled within your own limited boundaries?" This is what Deb felt God telling her and it is again so what I need to hear.

This was a really good book and I raced through it.

I received this book from Tyndale via NetGalley and was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I was blown away by this book. It was beautifully written and what a heartwrenching story within these pages.

This was a compelling true story of one woman’s faith and openness to God’s calling. She and her husband, over a period of many years, had fostered 140 children. When asked to take in a drug addicted newborn they readily agreed. When asked later to take in that baby’s additional four siblings, they hesitantly agreed. Deb and her family came to love these children and shared with them God’s love for each one. But when a court order required them to send the children back to their birth mother all their lives changed forever.
In the aftermath, I could never have done the many things Deb had done. She went against what her husband and children wanted her to do because of her strong convictions that she was doing what she felt God wanted her to do. She had a strong spiritual connection to the Lord and didn’t always want to do what he was calling her to do but she obeyed anyway.
There were some sections of the book that was hard for me to read. Reality is sometimes more horrid than any fiction that could be imagined, but this was a book that I couldn’t put down. So much pain, hurt and injustice but a wonderful thread of God’s wonderful grace and redemption also. I so admired Deb for her strong convictions to God’s voice in spite of all the objections by those around her including close family. Sometimes giving or receiving forgiveness is one of the hardest things but so freeing and peace giving. This is a real life story that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon, if ever.
I received a complimentary ebook copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley. I was not required to write a review positive or otherwise. All opinions are strictly my own.

Topic: Murder, foster care, and trials of spiritual faith.

Flow:★★★☆☆
I felt that this book was hard for me only because the flow was so disruptive with all the side-stories being told (the amount of people being introduced). It confused me and made the story unsteady for me since so many people were being introduced.

Overall: Since I didn't complete this book I can only give a rating based on the *19% I finished. I really enjoyed Debra's voice and I would have stayed hooked if I wasn't confused with the flow of the story.

*this rating is based on the amount I finished

Y'all know that I love a good murder mystery, especially when it's based on a true story. Unfortunately, this is one of the most heartbreaking true stories that I've read.



This is the true story of a foster family and not just any foster family, this was the teach others how to do it foster family. They took all the tough cases and kept larger families together. They knew how to foster kids. This story is about a specific family of several kids that came into their care when their single mother ran into some problems with the law.



There was one little girl from the displaced family, Hannah, found a very special place in their hearts. It became clear during their time together that Hannah was not treated the same as her siblings by her birth mother, Karen. She showed fear and the other children distanced themselves from her. When it came time to return to live with their birth mother, Hannah begged to stay with the Moerke family. The Moerkes did all they could to keep tabs on her and to make sure that she was doing well in the care of her mother. They even offered to let Hannah live with them while her birth mother got settled in her care of her children. You can imagine the Moerke's heartbreak when they discovered that Hannah had been murdered by her mother.



It is this murder that brings the real story to the forefront, it's when Debra Moerke is given the opportunity to extend grace to Hannah's mother. It is that grace that is so mystifying and capturing as a reader. Karen, who only wanted what was best for Hannah, finds herself in a position of extending grace to the woman that stole the life of this young girl. The story goes on to share how the Moerke's were asked to adopt the infant that Karen gave birth to while in prison. And how that grace they extended to Karen grew and changed the lives of both families.



This story is such a great reminder that just because we offer grace, it doesn't mean that everything is going to turn out peaches and cream. It also gives us a very real picture of how grace not only changes the receiver but the giver. It's Debra that we see growing in her conviction of what she's supposed to offer Karen. It's what we see Debra giving up in order to extend that grace.



I really enjoyed this book, it was so very well written and a wonderful reminder that grace is difficult and it's messy and it is so very much worth the effort.





I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley for the purpose of review. I'm never required to give positive feedback but I'm always thankful when I can.

I have to admit I struggled with the rating a bit. I read this book in 24 hours because I needed to know what happened next. This story tears at your heart for the children involved. I just was left with a lot of questions at the end of the book.