Dancing from the Shadows

By D'Ann Renner

Description:

Successful businesswoman Tori St. John is haunted by the verse From whom much is given, much is required. Poised at the glass ceiling with sledgehammer in hand, Tori decides to do something with real impact. she and her husband Phillip adopt two children from a Bulgarian orphanage. At five, Lydia is sugar-coated dynamite. Two-year-old Gabe avoids eye contact, prefers a silver bowl over shiny new toys and fears the vacuum cleaner. His diagnosis of autism leaves Tori depressed, obsessed with helping her son and angry at God. She adores her quirky, charming son, but what will his future be like if Tori can t free him? Tori plunges into the special-needs world with the vigor that made her a business diva. This time the stakes are critical. As she struggles with Gabe s disability, Tori s world unravels. School s not working for Gabe, their church rejects him, Lydia s resentment escalates and a sultry co-worker is after Phillip. As she battles to save her family, Tori must learn how to balance a life she can't control and embrace a different concept of normal.

Book Takeaway:

Children with special needs don't need to be fixed, because they aren't broken. All too often it is we who are broken, and need God'd healing hand.

Why the author wrote this book:

I kept reading about parents of children with autism who had no hope. Murder-suicides are occuring too often in the autism community, divorce is rampant and despair is prevalent. Yet, a child with a disability is a special gift of God. I decided to write a fictionalized composite of life in the special needs world. I wrote of one woman's journey from hopelessness to contentment.