All grieving takes time. It can't be hurried or covered up. But grieving for a parent can be especially complicated. What if your relationship wasn't very good? What if there are unresolved issues? What if you must care for a living parent in the midst of your own grief?

They say children live what they learn but thats not necessarily true, is it? Or is there an exception for me? I dont think it is true. It is a big myth to me as they say everybody is entitled to their own opinion. Well, let me give you a good example, and just to let you know, it may be graphic, so read at your own risk . This is a cross between love, hate and anger in a person's life This is a heart that has never mended even in adulthood. I have not lived what I learned. Are you ready to hear it? Here goes!

Sarah was severely beaten by her abusive husband while she was pregnant with Amy. He was trying to kill the unwanted life inside her. Mother and baby survived, but Amy was born prematurely, weighing just over a pound. Grandma Liz, a midwife and an old country doctor, fought desperately to give little Amy the chance to live. Listening to that story always made Amy feel close to God. When Grandma Liz, Amy’s caretaker, suffered a stroke, she solicited help from her brother-in-law and his wife, who had lost their own child at birth. Under the guise of helping, they stole Amy away to the swampy woods of southeast Texas, where little Amy nearly died of malaria...... another close call. God was really watching out for Amy. The “Great Depression” hit the country in 1929. Rural Texas and America were locked in its stranglehold. Amy was six. She wandered East and West Texas with her aunt and uncle, seeking work to buy food. Survival was the name of the game. They slept in their car, under the sky and in abandoned houses. They picked cotton; they tenant farmed, cut firewood to sell and raised hogs for market. By the time Amy was twelve, she could work like a full grown man. She nearly didn’t make it to twelve. When Amy was eleven, she nearly drowned in a creek. God put a total stranger in the woods at just the right time to rescue her. Amy was certain that God had saved her life for some special purpose or person. “Nobody’s Child” chronicles Amy’s story from her earliest childhood recollections, through the hard years of the “Depression” and later as a young mother awaiting her husband’s return from service in World War II. Her story is filled with both funny and sad moments and is told in a compelling faith based narrative.

The orphan trains stopped running in 1929 and the foster care system began. Hollywood relieved Depression era problems on the subject with films starring Shirley Temple. "Room for One More" with Cary Grant depicted the need for foster families. "Blossoms In the Dust" starring Greer Garson dealt with the social stigma faced by both the parents and the children. Having immigrant parents in the mix added more problems. This was my family. We were a family torn apart as our parents fought to regain their children while the system held them hostage to the moral tenor of the times. Once the State took us a promise was made, a promise believed. Why, in the end, did we then feel twice abandoned, twice betrayed?

Commended for the 2004 Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice Selection, short-listed for the 2005 Red Maple Award and Rocky Mountain Book Award When the Armenians of Turkey are marched into the desert to die in 1915, Mariam is rescued by her Turkish friend Rustem, and lives with mixed acceptance as a guest in his father’s harem. Kevork is shot and left for dead in a mass grave in the desert, but is rescued by nomadic Arabs and nurtured back to health. Both teens must choose between the security of an adopted home or the risk of death in search of family. A sequel to the highly successful The Hunger, Nobody’s Child is a stirring and engaging account of one of the twentieth century’s most significant events.

A touching story about just how far one man will go to protect an innocent life of a Rhinoceros. In an unspecified time in the future, it is discovered that within a special breed of albino rhinoceros there is a genetic code that holds the properties to regenerate man, that can cure all diseases, even those very serious. As a result, in a short period of time this albino rhino becomes nearly extinct, leaving just one: Sabium. Enter Bakari, a boy dealing with his own devastation, who now decides to dedicate his life to protecting this rhino.

"We were swill. We weren't even piglets. We were the foul slop that farmers feed to pigs, animals that will eat absolutely anything. Did he hate us so much that only the foulest image would do?" Cora Coleman was born into a house of violence and fear in a small town in Ireland. Her disturbed father constantly beat her mother, and treated their seven children with contempt and obscenity. Their lives revolved around his moods. It was no surprise that when Cora grew up the cycle continued, as she went through a series of abusive relationships. Her personal hell culminated when she left her violent partner in Canada and went to stay first in a women's refuge with her young son, Luke, finally finding peace when she was taken in by a group of nuns. From there, her slow road to recovery began. Cora Coleman's poignant, harrowing memoir shows that even "swill" can grow and into a confident, whole, peaceful human being.

Austin Boyd’s vivid writing plunges you into Appalachia with such descriptive realism that you taste the perfume of summer clover and melt into the tender heart of a young woman who would sacrifice anything for Daddy. Hearkening to the myth of Pandora’s Box, Nobody’s Child sweeps you into a world where unprecedented choices never intended by heaven lead to unintended consequences never before seen on earth. Meet… Laura Ann McGehee—Determined to honor her father’s dying request, the young West Virginia woman will do whatever it takes to save the family farm, including using the one remaining financial resource she has—her body. Sophia McQuistion—Thanks to the unusual sacrifice of a woman she has never met, she carries the child she could never conceive. Ian Stewart—In Laura’s time of need, he’s more than just a close friend. He is a source of grace, a man who loves Laura Ann through her many trials. When unusual circumstances place Sophia’s baby in Laura Ann’s care, Laura Ann is now the virgin mother of her own biological son. The media call him “Nobody’s Child.” But somebody wants him badly enough to steal him. Weaving together bioethics and faith, Nobody’s Child dramatizes a future that is already upon us with consequences we can no longer avoid.

In this 1940s coming-of-age story, Sarah, a naive seventeen-year-old Caucasian girl elects prostitution as part of a desperate plan to make quick money in order to escape her small-town life in Warren, Ohio. Her journey begins one night while eavesdropping on her Uncle Brady and his friends playing cards. They joke about a place they've discovered in nearby Youngstown, where men are entertained by beautiful ladies, who, apparently, make the kind of money she needs to fund her escape plan. Sarah's innocence assumes the women are dancers, like those in the New York City chorus line she once saw in a magazine. Thrilled at the idea of making lots of easy money, she and her friend Rita travel to Youngstown to find out for themselves. Wallace is the suave Negro manager of 520, an upscale brothel, inconspicuously located in the "colored" part of town. Sarah is instantly overwhelmed by his charm. After starting to work there, they begin a secret affair. When she becomes pregnant, she has no doubt that it's his child. Wallace brazenly denies the accusation and suggests abortion. Distraught, not knowing what to do, she turns to Bible verses and prayers the nuns taught their class when she was in Catholic school. She becomes friends with the colored pastor of a church in walking distance of 520. He helps her find her way to redemption and renewed hope. As a result of his counsel, she decides to keep the baby. Her daughter Patty Jean is born at 520 on a busy Saturday night. Within minutes, Wallace swoops in and abducts the child to the sounds of Sarah wailing and pleading. Her initial plan of escape from Warren, though still possible, comes at a cost she never could have imagined!