"He was born blue; he was barely alive. All the air had been sucked from the room." Kelly Speck had planned for her newborn son, Bennett, to be placed on her bare chest for his first attempt at breastfeeding. Instead, he was whisked away to the NICU. It was, as Speck writes, "the kickoff of a nightmare journey." The doctors said the end was near for Bennett. Was there any hope? Hope in the Heartache, Kelly Speck's true-to-life and immaculately detailed memoir, tells of Bennett's fight to survive and his family's journey through grief and exhaustion in hospitals, churches, and insurance offices. The Specks never lost faith, and in their devotion to God and family, they learned what matters most: hope. Hope in the Heartache: The Journey of Grace and Growth with a Special Needs Child is at once a devastating and uplifting story. It's for anyone who has faced trauma, for anyone supporting a loved one in crisis, and for anyone who needs to know how it might feel to confront -- and overcome -- true heartache.
