The House of Hope

I apologize for my long absence from blogging. My life has changed so much in the last six months. I started a new pain management program with fentanyl patches. In many ways it's given me my life back. I'm far more active than I've been in the last seven years. I've been able to take some trips that would never have been possible before, and I am so grateful for that. The down side is that every couple of weeks, my pain catches up with the level of the patch, and the doctor has to bump up my dosage. It seems like I have a few good days and a lot of bad days. Recently the doctor jumped up my dosage considerably in hopes that it would give me some longer lasting relief. Instead it made me very ill and unable to function. So now I'm on motion sickness pills as well as the patches.

Another problem with the patches is that at night, for some reason, they make me itch. I wake up in the middle of the night scratching all over. When I itch, I don't sleep. Three nights in the last week, I didn't sleep at all. So while the patches have been a blessing in many ways, there's a high cost to it. I'm not blogging as often because I'm not reading as much as I used to, which is good because I'm living my life instead of spending it always in bed. But I'm also not blogging because when I'm stuck in bed now, I don't even feel up to blogging.

So I apologize for the long gaps between posts. Blogging has been my outlet for over six years, and while I enjoy having more of a life, I also miss posting. Hopefully I can still tell you about some of the fantastic books that I get to read, so stick around awhile, and don't give up on my yet!

The House of Hope by Elisabeth Gifford is a moving story of one couple's decision to make a difference for the Lord. Robin and Joyce Hill were finishing their time living in Beijing, China and getting ready to move for his job when Joyce was struck with the conviction from God that they were to open a home for orphans who were too sick to be adopted and get them the care they need. A visit to an orphanage four years earlier had struck the couple's heart, but they were unsure how to help at first, but when Joyce came up with the idea for The House of Hope, Robin was quickly on board. They began by taking in one little girl into their dining room, and grew over ten years to care for over 1000 children, offering many of them the opportunity to find a "forever family" by getting them the operations they need to not just survive, but to really live. This is the story of the Hill's quest to save as many children as they can by treating each child as if he/she were their own. Gifford does a terrific job of portraying the loving and compassionate nature of the Hills by telling the story of individual children who would have died without their care. The stories are joyful, poignant, and thought provoking as readers will be compelled to consider how God could be calling them to act. Robin and Joyce Hill are my heroes, showing these children the face of God through incredible acts of sacrifice and love.


Thank you to LitFuse Publicity for providing me with a copy of this book for review! You can check out the Hill's website here.