Speaker and author Kayla Stoecklein delivers an inspiring message of how she came face-to-face with crushing personal loss and discovered how to rebuild a beautiful life. Fall in Love with Life Again In the midst of hardship and loss, what you long for most is hope—hope for a way forward, hope that purpose can come from this difficult season, hope that God is still with you. Since losing her pastor-husband to suicide in August 2018, Kayla Stoecklein has been passionate about bringing hope to those who wonder if life will ever hold beauty again. In Rebuilding Beautiful, Kayla shares the hard-won truths she has embraced in these years of grief and new beginnings to help you: discover practical and spiritual ways to welcome your pain so that you can ultimately surrender it. step into community in order to be held as well as hold space for the pain of others. understand the ways your body remembers trauma and find avenues for physical and mental healing. awaken to the splendor of a life in which sadness and joy coexist, and dare to dream again—spiritually, relationally, vocationally—as you discover more of who God made you to be in Christ. The journey from agony to awe takes time. Kayla’s words, ideas, and inspiration offer the road map and companionship you need to move forward even when you feel stuck—to wake up excited about a life that holds a new kind of beautiful.

A pastor's wife's shattering yet ultimately hopeful story of her husband's death by suicide, her journey to understand mental illness, and the light she found in the darkness. On August 25, 2018, Kayla Stoecklein lost her husband, Andrew--megachurch pastor of Inland Hills Church in Chino, California--to suicide. In the wake of the tragedy, she embarked on a brave journey to better understand his harrowing battle with mental illness and, ultimately, to overcome the stigma of suicide. Fear Gone Wild is her intimate account of all that led to that tragic day, including her husband's panic attacks and debilitating bouts of anxiety and depression. Despite their deep faith in God and the countless prayers of many believers, Andrew was never healed of his illness. Turning to Scripture for answers, she discovered that God uses wilderness experiences to prepare His children--including Jesus--for his greater purpose and to work miracles inside our souls. With a clear-eyed acknowledgment of how misguided and misinformed she was about mental illness, Kayla Stoecklein shares her story in hopes that anyone walking through the wilderness of mental illness will be better equipped for the journey and will learn to put their hope in Jesus through it all.

It took losing nearly everything, to discover what they can’t live without. A few excruciating minutes pinned under a burning beam cost Ryan Ward his job as a firefighter, the easy camaraderie of his coworkers, his current girlfriend, and damn near cost him his left leg. Giving up, though, wasn’t an option. He fought and won the battle back to health, over a painful year. Now, choosing a new profession, going back to school, and renting a room from the college groundskeeper should be simple. Until he realizes he’s falling in love with his housemate, and things take a turn for the complicated. John Barrett knows about loss. After moving twice to stay in touch with his kids, he could only watch as his ex-wife whisked them away to California. Offering Ryan a room seems better than rattling around his empty house alone. But as casual friendship moves to something more, and emotions heat up, the big old house feels like tight quarters. It’s nothing they can't learn to navigate, until life adds in unhappy teen kids, difficult family members, and mysterious deaths on campus. Rebuilding will be far from easy, even for two guys willing to open their minds, and hearts.

Finding love in the ashes was easy. Building a life together? Not so much. After spending the first part of his life chasing pretty girls, love has finally come to Ryan in the form of John, a tall, lanky, red-headed landscape architect with wide shoulders and a five-o’clock shadow. For the first time in Ryan's life, love feels easy. Hell, he even ran into a burning building for John and his son, and he’d do it again if he had to. But telling his father and brothers and classmates “I’m gay. I’ve met a man”? That’s going to take nerve of a different kind. For John, loving Ryan is as natural as breathing. Now if only the rest of his life would fall into place. Dealing with his teen son is complicated enough, but with his ex-wife causing trouble and his daughter wanting to move in, John’s house— and his relationship with Ryan— threaten to split at the seams. Is one month without a new surprise knocking him upside the heart really too much to ask? Unfortunately, the answer seems to be Yes. (This is a re-release of the 2015 Samhain novel, with only minor editing.)

Behind Sami, the Syrian skyline is full of smoke. The boy follows his family and all his neighbours in a long line, as they trudge through the sands and hills to escape the bombs that have destroyed their homes. But all Sami can think of is his pet pigeons - will they escape too? When they reach a refugee camp and are safe at last, everyone settles into the tent city. But though the children start to play and go to school again, Sami can't join in. When he is given paper and paint, all he can do is smear his painting with black. He can't forget his birds and what his family has left behind. One day a canary, a dove, and a rose finch fly into the camp. They flutter around Sami and settle on his outstretched arms. For Sami it is one step in a long healing process at last. A gentle yet moving story of refugees of the Syrian civil war, My Beautiful Birds illuminates the ongoing crisis as it affects its children. It shows the reality of the refugee camps, where people attempt to pick up their lives and carry on. And it reveals the hope of generations of people as they struggle to redefine home.

Disasters—natural ones, such as hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes, and unnatural ones such as terrorist attacks—are part of the American experience in the twenty-first century. The challenges of preparing for these events, withstanding their impact, and rebuilding communities afterward require strategic responses from different levels of government in partnership with the private sector and in accordance with the public will. Disasters have a disproportionate effect on urban places. Dense by definition, cities and their environs suffer great damage to their complex, interdependent social, environmental, and economic systems. Social and medical services collapse. Long-standing problems in educational access and quality become especially acute. Local economies cease to function. Cultural resources disappear. The plight of New Orleans and several smaller Gulf Coast cities exemplifies this phenomenon. This volume examines the rebuilding of cities and their environs after a disaster and focuses on four major issues: making cities less vulnerable to disaster, reestablishing economic viability, responding to the permanent needs of the displaced, and recreating a sense of place. Success in these areas requires that priorities be set cooperatively, and this goal poses significant challenges for rebuilding efforts in a democratic, market-based society. Who sets priorities and how? Can participatory decision-making be organized under conditions requiring focused, strategic choices? How do issues of race and class intersect with these priorities? Should the purpose of rebuilding be restoration or reformation? Contributors address these and other questions related to environmental conditions, economic imperatives, social welfare concerns, and issues of planning and design in light of the lessons to be drawn from Hurricane Katrina.

Having a loved one turn his back on the faith we embraced through our formative years forced me to honestly reflect on things I had never dared to question before. My journey through my thoughts and with my brother would take me into places I did not expect to go-places that were simultaneously painful as well as uplifting. I would find myself covered in dirt from everything anti-Mormonism has had to throw at me, but I would also find myself shielded and renewed by gaining a deeper understanding of the beautiful truths surrounding The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I can now see why people fall away from being faithful members of the church. There are a variety of reasons, all of which I now have a much better understanding. I say I have a better understanding, but that does not mean I agree. I do not.It is also easy to see why many relationships do not survive the changes that so often come when a loved one leaves the faith. This not a fun story. This book is not like the fiction I write where the plot gets thicker as it goes but everyone ends up peachy in the end. Most of this book is the story of two inseparable brothers who go through something so difficult we have to rebuild our relationship from the ground up and, unfortunately, that relationship is never quite the same. This book is also a personal journey of discovering for myself what it means to have an intimate relationship with my Father in Heaven. And for large portions of this book, I abandon the storyline altogether in order to answer questions I have posed for myself and sort out my jumble of thoughts. Does God even exist? What is religion? Is religion actually important if I consider my spiritual journey to be something personal? What are the aspects of my own religion that I find indispensable and beautiful? My prayer is that some people will take this story to heart in a way that they can gain for themselves some of the lessons I have learned as they take part in my journey. My hope is that some people can learn from what I have experienced in order to avoid some of the same mistakes I made and sidestep the need to walk the same route. My desire is that someone might read my story and discover a reason to stay in the faith despite the fact that they do not have all the answers.

A powerful story about home, community, and hope, inspired by the rebuilding of Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017, written by debut author Karina González and illustrated by Krystal Quiles. "This book is more than beautiful." - Yuyi Morales, Caldecott Honoree and New York Times bestselling creator of Dreamers Co-quí, co-quí! The coquí frogs sing to Elena from her family’s beloved mango tree—their calls so familiar that they might as well be singing, “You are home, you are safe.” But home is suddenly not safe when a hurricane threatens to destroy everything that Elena knows. As time passes, Elena, alongside her community, begins to rebuild their home, planting seeds of hope along the way. When the sounds of the coquíes gradually return, they reflect the resilience and strength of Elena, her family, and her fellow Puerto Ricans. The Coquies Still Sing is also available in Spanish.

Rebuilding Life after Brain Injury: Dreamtalk tells the survival story of Sheena McDonald, who in 1999 was hit by a police van and suffered a very severe brain injury. Sheena’s story is told from her own, personal standpoint and also from two further unique and invaluable perspectives. Allan Little, a BBC journalist and now Sheena’s husband, describes both the physical and mental impact of the injury on himself and on Sheena. Gail Robinson, Sheena’s neuropsychological rehabilitation specialist, provides professional commentaries on Sheena’s condition, assessment and recovery process. The word Dreamtalk, created by Allan to describe Sheena’s once "hallucinogenic state", sets the tone for this book. It humanises and contextualises the impact of brain injury, providing support and encouragement for patients, professionals and families. It presents exclusive insights into each stage of recovery, spanning coma, altered consciousness, post-traumatic amnesia and rehabilitation; all showing how she has defied conventional clinical expectations and made an exceptional recovery. This book is valuable reading to those who have suffered a brain injury and also to professionals such as neurologists, neuropsychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists working in the field.

One of the world’s leading experts on infidelity provides a step-by-step guide through the process of infidelity—from suspicion and revelation to healing, and provides profound, practical guidance to prevent infidelity and, if it happens, recover and heal from it. You’re right to be cautious when you hear these words: “I’m telling you, we’re just friends.” Good people in good marriages are having affairs. The workplace and the Internet have become fertile breeding grounds for “friendships” that can slowly and insidiously turn into love affairs. Yet you can protect your relationship from emotional or sexual betrayal by recognizing the red flags that mark the stages of slipping into an improper, dangerous intimacy that can threaten your marriage.