{Giveaway is Closed} Winners are Joan M and Arlene and they have been emailed.
Today, I’ve got a special treat! My long time blog friend, Edie, who write the beautiful blog, Life in Grace, has written a wonderful book. I haven’t read it yet, but will as soon as it arrives. I know without a doubt that the book is good because I’ve seen a lot of gushing online about the book and that folks couldn’t put it down so I can’t wait to read it too.
I’ve shared Edie’s home and a bit of her story here on my Feature Friday series, when I featured her new home, built after a devastating fire at the end of 2010. Her family lives in Tennessee on a pretty lake and experienced a horrible fire that took everything they had. They rebuilt, from ashes to beauty, and Edie is a wonderful story teller and a conveyor of faith so I know this book will be a wonderful read. We have all gone through loss in one form or another, I sure have and lived to tell about it. It’s how we handle those trials and losses in life that define us and boost our faith.
Here is part of Edie’s story, in her words below…..
Three days before Christmas in 2010, our house caught fire in the middle of the night. Before morning light, everything we owned was gone. Only by the grace of God did any of us make it out alive.
I sat numb and cold watching the sidewalls crack and roof give way.
How ironic that after all those years of hearing crazy stories about my Daddy burning things down, fire was now my legacy too. Sister found me on the frozen ground when she drove up with Mama. I rose to greet them and then fell into their arms, letting the heartache of forty years have its way.
When I looked back on it, my whole life had been preparing me for this day.
When I was six, my Daddy was taken to jail for throwing a cinderblock through the back window of our car. My sister and I were sitting in the back seat when it happened. Nobody was hurt but nothing would ever be the same either. When I was eight, I began weekly visits to Brushy Mountain prison to see my cousin who’d been arrested for armed robbery. Then at twelve, I drove my Daddy home from a bar one night when he was too drunk to see straight.
By the ripe old age of 27 when I was in medical school, my Daddy died of lung cancer and something in me broke—like a dam too fragile and cracked to keep back the constant beating rains. And here I stood again, watching my life literally burn down around me—the kind of profound loss that had come to feel inevitable to me.
By late morning, only the chimney was swaying in the wind. Everything was gone—everything except for the turquoise chair that stood untouched by the stove, glimmering beautiful in a sea of charred life.
It was my own rainbow—the slightest hint of hope. Maybe all was not lost.
A few days later, I was in Knoxville with my sister getting the bare essentials. Things that would make me feel like me again—makeup and cowboy boots and a computer. I shudder when I look back at the photos. I had a black eye from jumping out of my two story window, wore ill fitting borrowed clothes for days, but I think it was the lack of hair products that made me look the most pitiful.
We walked by Williams Sonoma and I went in to look at their soup pots. I had spent the last few years since quitting my job as a family doctor trying to figure out how to be at home and soup taught me the way. My sister very kindly and tenderly said, “Um, you don’t even have a stove.”
Oh yeah, the little detail of my house just burning down.
I bought the soup pot anyway.
Days after everything I owned burned to the ground, I was now the proud owner of a computer, some cowboy boots, and a dutch oven, while my stove and a lifetime of memories lay in an ashy heap.
People fed me for weeks, God bless them every one, but I found my way back to life again by making soup, by feeding my people.
That very same dutch oven sits on my stovetop everyday and reminds me that my calling is to serve and love and feed and I can do that no matter what burns down around me.
That soup pot gave me something tangible to do, someone to feed, someone to think about besides myself. It’s teaching me still that there’s always some one right in front of me who has needs that I am perfectly suited to meet, regardless of my education level, my current job, or the circumstances in my life.
Just a simple pot of soup. A bowl of hope and nourishment and life.
A reminder of the great blessing it is to have a home and stove and people to feed.
Edie’s spiritual memoir, All the Pretty Things, releases September 2oth. It is her hard fought memoir—a story of fatherlessness, of being untethered and unspoken for; the story of how her life burned down around her in a million little ways and how she sometimes set fire to it; the story of how she finally found redemption among life’s ruins in the love of a Father who never lets go.
Edie Wadsworth is a speaker, writer, and blogger who has been featured in various print and online media. She writes at lifeingrace on a variety of topics that center themselves on home—including vocation, hospitality, faith, parenting, cooking, and life in the Appalachian South. She and her husband Steve live in East Tennessee with their kids.
Fun news for my readers! Edie is giving away 2 copies of her books to 2 of my readers, so if you’d like to win a copy, please leave a comment on this post. Just tell me why you’d like to read Edie’s book. I know it’s full of faith and hope, so that is reason enough!
Speaking of soup, this cheese tortellini soup that Edie posted is on my list to try. She swears by it and it looks delicious!
If you’d like to buy Edie’s book for a gift or for yourself, you can get it here (affiliate link):
My Grandparents raised me as my father was in prison most of my life and my mother was unfit. I was told by others that I would not be worth anything, but never by my Grandparents. They believed in me and stood by me always. I rose above my family reputation and have had a wonderful life with a fantastic husband of 28 years and 2 children and 2 grandchildren. Rising above one’s self is something I learned from my Grandparents and do on a daily basis. I even rose above myself, by allowing my birth mother back into my life with no apologies expected or needed. It was hard, but letting go of bad and concentrating on the good in life is a fundamental value that I treasure.
Jessica…….YOU are also an inspiration!!! Perhaps you need to write your story, too. Dr. Charles Stanley, or someone, has said that we should not waste our adversities and it certainly seems like you have not.
Your story is a powerful one too, Jessica! We all have stories to share.
I would LOVE to read this book!
This time of year is really hard for me. I loss my father in December of 2014 and my life has never been the same. The day after we told him that my daughter had been accepted into her first college choice, he was gone. He did not get to see her walk across the stage at her high school graduation or attend her prom. My father was such a great help to me with my daughter as I am a single mom. He picked her up everyday from school since kindergarten and the one thing that I wanted him to see was her walk across that stage. But it was not to be and I am still struggling with it. So, I would love to read her book as I need my faith and hope renewed.
I have my on struggles and sorrows to work my way out of! I would love to hear her inspiring story!
Each of us have a story to tell and I would love to read her story. We have a lots in common. She knows where her strength comes from. Wishing her the best.
My daughter and son in law bought their first house and it burned down 6 weeks later, my daughter and dog got out but they lost two much loved kitties. I would love to send this book to her
Her story is very similar to a friend of mine who suffered a devastating house fire, and just two years later, lost her husband to esophogeal cancer. Life can be hard to bear. Jesus knows this, and feels our pain, and says in His Word, “In this world YOU WILL have troubles, but BEHOLD, I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD!
What great comfort for all of us as we enter the season of hope, love and joy!
I will be putting this book on my Christmas list to give to my friend who is still struggling.
Wow, just wow! When bad things happen, we just need to remind ourselves that God has a plan as overwhelming as the circumstances may be. What an inspiring story just in this little we read.
My home nearly washed away exactly 6 months ago in a devestating flood here in Simonton, TX. The structure was salvageable but not the contents. I can relate to Edie’s story of sudden undeserved loss of a lifetime of memories and treasures. We are still repairing the house. What few items we managed to pull from the muck smell of the putrid water that sat stagnant in our home for 10 days. I would love a copy of her book. I think hearing of someone else’s recovery would definitely help me with mine.
To reinforce the belief that life is worth fighting for!
Thank you for sharing Edie’s testimony. Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love!
I would love to read this book, so inspiring.
This sounds like such a great book. I love Edie and gain so much from her.
The ladies in my Bible Study are always looking for a good book to read. This one sounds like it will give us hope and encouragement even in the face of hopeless circumstances.
I would love to read Edie’s book as it sounds like a shining message of hope, and we all need that.
Sounds like a wonderful read!
These kinds of books are great to pass between friends and family members to share positive stories:)
This time of year we can all use some inspiration……some of her story could be some of my story. I have a friend who needs to know this story. Thank you.
Fabulous book that is honest and real! Loved it!!!
I am a lover of a pot of soup and how it can soothe the soul. I would love to read her book. Thanks for sharing with your readers!
I am an avid reader and would love to read Edie’s story. Sometimes reading the adversity that others go through puts your own “troubles” in a different perspective.