Book Review: "I Will Carry You: The Sacred Dance of Grief & Joy"

I've never done a book review before (probably because Mary Higgins Clark is still my favorite author and no one really wants to read that review...) but I thought this book was worth reviewing.

First off, let me start by making this disclaimer: If you are pregnant, recently post partum, menopausal, or in any other way hormonally imbalanced - you will have a really tough read.

If you've ever read the blog Bring the Rain then you probably already know all about this book. But if you haven't ever read her blog, I'll give you a rundown. Angie Smith is married to Chris, who is a singer in "Selah," a popular Christian band. They have 3 girls with another now in Heaven (and she's currently pregnant with another little girl!). This book is about Angie's journey through a pregnancy that she was told would never produce a living baby. Her sweet baby girl was deemed "incompatible with life" at 20 weeks gestation and she was advised to "terminate" the pregnancy to spare her emotions. Unwilling to do so, Angie carried their little girl (who they named Audrey Caroline) throughout the entire pregnancy. The rest of the book deals with her loss and how she and her family coped, largely focusing on her love and faith in Jesus Christ.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it in 1 full day. I sat on my couch with a box of Kleenex and sobbed like a baby while reading it. It is a sad book. But at the same time, it's a happy book. Angie and her family wanted to make sure that Audrey's illness and death had some "higher purpose" in this world. And it certainly did. The book does a lot of comparing between her loss and the loss that Jesus felt at Lazarus' death. It's hard for me to explain because it literally took her the entire book to pull the two together - but she did it wonderfully. She's a very witty writer, and holds very little back. She refers back to blog posts that she made at different times through Audrey's life so if you've read her blog before, you'll recognize some of her posts in the book. I truly have no complaints about the book. I enjoyed reading it, despite the huge pile of Kleenex that it required to finish.

So - I DO recommend it...just not if you're hormonally imbalanced in any way. If you are pregnant, please, do yourself a favor and wait until a while after your baby is born (it'll probably be a while before you have time, anyway!) to read this book. It will have you worried sick your entire pregnancy. If you do choose to read it even though I've warned you, try to see her main point for writing the book - even something so horrible as the death of a baby can bring glory to God, even in the most bizarre ways.