For those thinking about buying and reading Waiting for Peace, I wanted to provide a little more background on it.
This is Part 1: What’s in the book?
Waiting for Peace has nine chapters, each of which has two parts. The first part of each chapter tells the story of Ember’s life. This begins with Willow’s all-too-brief life, continues with our grief which followed and then the surprise pregnancy, and then moves through the trials we faced during Ember’s life up to and after her death. I tried to write these portions in an episodic manner in a style that might be labeled creative non-fiction. Obviously, you already know the end, and I won’t pretend that it’s not a sad story. But I still think the story of all that we went through is compelling and worth your time to read. My prayer is that giving an insight into our life is an encouragement to others.
The second half of each chapter relates a personal reflection on a lesson that God taught me through that corresponding period of Ember’s life. This includes things like caring for your spouse, wrestling with anxiety, distraction vs true comfort, and asking why. While I try to give orthodox Christian answers to these questions, I really don’t sugarcoat things. As the first half of each chapter plainly shows, life isn’t sugarcoated. And sometimes God’s sovereignty is really hard. My hope is that I was able to clearly express the pain and struggle that are real, but in the end, not give up on God.
The appendix contains the words that Breeze wrote which were shared at Ember’s funeral. The rest of the book pretty much pales in comparison to this section, and it’s my honor to be able to include my wife’s perspective.
The entire book is relatively short, about 125 pages. You could read it in one long sitting (especially if you’re a faster reader than I am), though the emotion of it may force you to take breaks, or maybe to push on.
The first rough draft of this book I wrote in the eight months or so after Ember died. I was motivated to write in part because I wanted to think about Ember and remember her and I wanted to put down everything that had happened. But I also felt that I needed to try to make sense of everything and not forget what God had taught me. I’ve tried to leave in the emotion I was feeling at that time. Even though we are no longer walking in the acute stage of grief, the feelings from that time are real.
Next time, I’ll address the question: Should I read this book? I’m not (or I am) currently grieving.
