After reading excerpts of Natalie Brenner’s book This Undeserved Life: Uncovering the gifts of grief and the fullness of life I immediately began looking forward to reading the book. She speaks to situations I’ve experienced: the struggle to grow a family, difficult relationships within churches, as well as job and financial hardships. The overarching theme which will speak to many of us in the infertility community is this: dealing with the grief, and being free to grieve.Grief is a strong emotion people feel during infertility – chronic grief, the highs and lows of hope and disappointment, grieving the loss of children we’ve never met. Such grief is a tough concept to put into words, and I believe that Natalie’s story-telling style and tender writing will speak to many of us who don’t know how to verbalize our feelings or deal with our grief.

From the back cover of This Undeserved Life:

Have you ever had the walls of your life shatter and feel you weren’t allowed to be upset? Me too. The phrases, “This must be God’s plan,” and “It was meant to be this way,” are often thrown around as encouragement but only deepen the wound.

Loss after loss, I felt these fix-it phrases stripped my consent to grieve and acknowledge sorrow.

This Undeserved Life invites you to honestly grieve your losses. You will recognize loss and brokenness are not a part of God’s plan. It isn’t weak to grieve; it takes courage and strength to choose to give loss the space it demands.

This is my story of how I surrendered my sorrow by grabbing ahold of it, leading me to unearth an immense amount of grace. My sorrow created in me an undeniable hunger for Jesus. I found Him sitting with me in my darkest nightmares. My prayer is to offer a voice to the unseen aches in your soul.

This Undeserved Life is being released today and I’m getting a copy! Go grab a Kindle book or paperback from Amazon!

Hi, I’m Betsy, and I live in the Washington, D.C. area with my husband, Mike. We have been married since 2008. We enjoy exploring new cities together on foot, eating at our favorite Italian restaurants, and doing life as a team.

I published my first book Embracing Hope During Infertility in January 2015, and my second Seasons: A Picture Book was published in November 2016. Although this book is intended for children, if you’re still in a barren season like I am, I think that Seasons will encourage you with a glimpse of God’s goodness.  

I would love for you to connect with me by following my Hope During Infertility Facebook page andmy Betsy Herman, Writer Facebook page. I occasionally tweet as well.

Thanks so much for reading my posts!