Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Welcome Home by Kimberley Woodhouse


Kimberley Woodhouse is a wife, mother, author, and musician with a quick wit and positive outlook despite difficult circumstances. A popular speaker, she’s shared at more than 600 venues across the country. Kimberley and her family's story have garnered national media attention for many years, but most recently her family was chosen for ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, The Montel Williams Show, and Discovery Health channel’s Mystery ER. Welcome Home: Our Family’s Journey to Extreme Joy, releases from Tyndale House Publishers September first. In addition to her non-fiction, she also writes romantic suspense and children’s books. Kimberley lives, writes, and homeschools in Colorado with her husband and two children in their truly “extreme” home. www.kimberleywoodhouse.com



Overwhelming trials . . . met with overcoming joy.
Kayla Woodhouse is not your typical twelve-year-old. Due to a rare medical disorder, she feels no pain, doesn’t sweat, and needs protective cooling gear just to go outside. With her restrictive lifestyle; countless hospitalizations, including brain surgery; and the resulting mountain of hospital bills, what’s a family to do?

How the Woodhouse family has faced seemingly impossible challenges is a story that has captured the hearts of America. Millions of people have experienced glimpses of their lives on Discovery’s Mystery ER, The Montel Williams Show, and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (recently voted one of the show’s all-time best episodes!).

Now Kayla’s mom, Kimberley, takes readers behind the cameras to reveal their family’s journey as never before told. From medical sleuthing to cross-country moves, from freak fires to battles with insurance companies, Welcome Home proves that truth really is stranger than fiction. This candid life story reveals both success and failure and demonstrates how, even during tough circumstances, to shift your life from heartbreak to extreme joy.

Peak inside the Woodhouse family’s life (and their famous house) with a 16-page photo insert.



Margie's comments: It's my privilege to call Kim Woodhouse my friend. Even before I met her, I'd heard of her when she joined ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) and then posted about Kayla's needs. But then, just after Kayla's brain surgery, Kim made the drive from Colorado Springs north to Thorton to meet with the HIS Writers, the only ACFW chapter in Colorado at the time. What a joy to meet Kim in person! What a privilege it has been to be a part of their adventures by praying for this wonderful family.

Kim and her family truly live out James 1:2–4. Joy radiates from every one of them. It's so neat to see an entire family who truly strive to be Christlike in all they do. Welcome Home is their story of how God has brought them to this point. It's not a sugarcoated lesson in joyful Christian living. Kim is honest about the struggles they face on a day by day basis. I've been in their Extreme Makeover home several times and witnessed this family in action. They are transparent and open in their relationships with each other and in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

While I had heard most of the story in bits and pieces over the years I've known Kim and I watched the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition show they were featured on, I'm so thankful that Kim has written this out in book form. It's an amazing testimony of God's love, faithfulness, and goodness. Much of their faith, while still evident in their segment, was edited out of the show when it aired. But in her book she is able to fully cover the spiritual journey her family is on. What a blessing and encouragement they are to me to persevere on the path the Lord has for me and my family. I highly recommend Welcome Home.

1 comment:

Candee Fick said...

Bought it, read it, loved it. I've learned the same lessons through similar ways. Parenting a child with special needs is a tough journey. But one filled with extreme joy.