Signing with a Heavy Hand and Heart, Love Mommy
Signing with a Heavy Hand and Heart, Love Mommy

Author: Sondra Torres

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2013-03-13

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781482526158

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Words from Ms. Torres: "I take my FAS and turn it in to a teaching tool to help others learn what I go through every day of my life." "If one person listens to what I have to say, then I have done my job. This is what I was born to do. I have won many awards for my work. The awards I've won have been great, but my biggest award is knowing that my message is being delivered and knowing that I might be helping so many people and unborn babies. . If I can prevent one more child from this awful syndrome I will be happy. My ultimate goal is to get the word out there that FAS is 100% preventable. I want everyone to know about the effects of alcohol on the fetus. My advice, my plea, is that you PLEASE, PLEASE do not drink while you are pregnant, even if you plan on giving your baby up for adoption. Let your baby fulfil his or her dreams and live a normal life. For all the fathers to be, you play an important role in this too. You must be encouraging and supportive. Staying away from alcohol yourself would be helpful." What others are saying: Thank you for sending your book to me. I read it all, and I wanted to cry. What a wonderful sacrifice you and your family took on. It is wonderful what you have done and how Chanel has grown and turned out to be a wonderful young lady. You are certainly a very special person blessed by God from the beginning. I love you very much. Aunt Gloria"Ms. Torres is a true light in a world that needs more education on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and its effects on unborn children. She has opened doors that will never be shut. She has just begun to educate the nation on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome." Deborah Thornton, SEDNET Project Mangement"Ms. Torres is the epitome of self-advocacy and embodies strength, resilience, and determination. She is courageous and tireless in her quest to educate others regarding FAS; and is compassionate and determined in her mission to empower and advocate for other young adults with disabilities." Barbara Shannon, School PsychologistLast night, I received a copy of Signing with a heavy hand and heart, Love Mommy: A journey through fetal alcohol syndrome by Mrs Sondra A Torres and Miss Chanel E Torres from Ms. Torres. I opened it and couldn't put it down until I was finished. This story of a young woman living with the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome (a birth defect that is 100% preventable-all pregnant women need to do is not drink when pregnant) is moving, sometimes funny and always inspirational. I quickly grew to care about Chanel and her adoptive family. Ms. Torres creates a vivid picture of what it is like to live with and care for children with special needs. In relatively few words, Torres brings her family to life-its struggles and its joys. The feelings of love and joy are powerfully conveyed while not minimizing the challenges presented in raising a child with FAS. As a teacher and parent I laughed and cried and wished I could meet this brave girl and her loving mother. Torres is compassionate towards all, including birth parents, but my heart breaks for the children who struggle with this disability. It is a daily battle for which there are some effective interventions but no cures. I will say that Ms. Torres left me more hopeful for these children than my experience as a teacher had-her powerful home environment is definitely a plus for Chanel."CHANEL TORRES IS AVAILABLE FOR SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS TO BOOK THIS SPEAKER FOR A PRESENTATION, PLEASE GO TO advocatefortheunborn.wordpress.com

Hands Free Mama
Hands Free Mama

Author: Rachel Macy Stafford

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2014-01-07

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 031033814X

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Discover the power, joy, and love of living a present, authentic, and intentional life despite a world full of distractions. If technology is the new addiction, then multitasking is the new marching order. We check our email while cooking dinner, send a text while bathing the kids, and spend more time looking into electronic screens than into the eyes of our loved ones. With our never-ending to-do lists and jam-packed schedules, it's no wonder we're distracted. But this isn't the way it has to be. Special education teacher, New York Times bestselling author, and mother Rachel Macy Stafford says enough is enough. Tired of losing track of what matters most in life, Rachel began practicing simple strategies that enabled her to momentarily let go of largely meaningless distractions and engage in meaningful soul-to-soul connections. Finding balance doesn't mean giving up all technology forever. And it doesn't mean forgoing our jobs and responsibilities. What it does mean is seizing the little moments that life offers us to engage in real and meaningful interaction. In these pages, Rachel guides you through how to: Acknowledge the cost of your distraction Make purposeful connection with your family Give your kids the gift of your undivided attention Silence your inner critic Let go of the guilt from past mistakes And move forward with compassion and gratefulness So join Rachel and go hands-free. Discover what happens when you choose to open your heart--and your hands--to the possibilities of each God-given moment.

Before We Were Strangers
Before We Were Strangers

Author: Renée Carlino

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015-08-18

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1501105787

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From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M

Verity
Verity

Author: Colleen Hoover

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 2021-10-05

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 153872474X

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Whose truth is the lie? Stay up all night reading the sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Too Late and It Ends With Us. #1 New York Times Bestseller · USA Today Bestseller · Globe and Mail Bestseller · Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.

Hand to Hold
Hand to Hold

Author: JJ Heller

Publisher: WaterBrook

Published: 2021-07-20

Total Pages: 41

ISBN-13: 0593193253

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This heartwarming picture book reassures children that a parent’s love never lets go—based on the poignant lyrics of JJ Heller’s beloved lullaby “Hand to Hold.” “May the living light inside you be the compass as you go / May you always know you have my hand to hold.” With delightful illustrations and an engaging rhyme scheme, this book offers the promise of security and love every child’s heart longs to know. From skipping stones and counting stars to climbing trees and telling stories, every moment is wrapped snugly in the certain warmth of a parent’s presence and God’s blessing. With poignancy and joy, this bedtime read captures the unconditional love parents want their children to know but so often fail to express amid the chaos of daily life.

A Little Life
A Little Life

Author: Hanya Yanagihara

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2016-01-26

Total Pages: 833

ISBN-13: 0804172706

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

Small Spaces
Small Spaces

Author: Katherine Arden

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-07-09

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0525515046

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New York Times bestselling adult author of The Bear and the Nightingale makes her middle grade debut with a creepy, spellbinding ghost story destined to become a classic. Now in paperback. After suffering a tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie who only finds solace in books discovers a chilling ghost story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who loved her, and a peculiar deal made with "the smiling man"—a sinister specter who grants your most tightly held wish, but only for the ultimate price. Captivated by the tale, Ollie begins to wonder if the smiling man might be real when she stumbles upon the graves of the very people she's been reading about on a school trip to a nearby farm. Then, later, when her school bus breaks down on the ride home, the strange bus driver tells Ollie and her classmates: "Best get moving. At nightfall they'll come for the rest of you." Nightfall is, indeed, fast descending when Ollie's previously broken digital wristwatch begins a startling countdown and delivers a terrifying message: RUN. Only Ollie and two of her classmates heed these warnings. As the trio head out into the woods—bordered by a field of scarecrows that seem to be watching them—the bus driver has just one final piece of advice for Ollie and her friends: "Avoid large places. Keep to small." And with that, a deliciously creepy and hair-raising adventure begins.

Legendborn
Legendborn

Author: Tracy Deonn

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13: 153444162X

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An Instant New York Times Bestseller! Winner of the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe for New Talent Author Award Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy reinvents the King Arthur legend and “braids together Southern folk traditions and Black Girl Magic into a searing modern tale of grief, power, and self-discovery” (Dhonielle Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Belles). After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus. A flying demon feeding on human energies. A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down. And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw. The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates. She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

Mom, I Hate My Life!
Mom, I Hate My Life!

Author: Sharon Hersh

Publisher: WaterBrook

Published: 2010-12-01

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0307552187

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“I don’t know why my daughter is so angry. She yells at me all the time!” “Our daughter comes home, goes straight to her room, turns on her CD player and won’t talk to anyone– especially me.” “The emotional ups and downs of our daughter’s life make us all feel like we’re on a roller coaster.” Navigating an adolescent daughter’s emotional life is one of a mom’s toughest challenges. A teenage girl’s volatile emotions can seemingly toss her–and you–like a hurricane. When a scary external world and a turbulent internal world collide, the result is sometimes overwhelming and confusing. What can you do to protect your relationship with your daughter, guide her through this chaotic time, and assure her you are truly on her side? Your Adolescent Daughter’ s Struggles Can Help Her–and You–to Grow and Thrive. The good news is you are equipped with the most powerful resource available for maintaining and developing connection with your daughter: a mother’s heart. Learn how you can use hand-in-hand mothering skills to become the ally your daughter needs–parenting out of love, not fear–and find out how you both can experience dramatic, life-changing growth in the process.

Unbreak My Heart
Unbreak My Heart

Author: Nicole Jacquelyn

Publisher: Forever

Published: 2016-06-07

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1455537977

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A "heartbreaking, heartwarming" (Heidi McLaughlin, New York Times bestselling author) love story that asks the question: what do you do when your soul mate marries your best friend? If you're Kate Evans, you keep your friend Rachel, bond with her kids, and bury your feelings for her husband. The fact that Shane's in the military and away for long periods helps-but when tragedy strikes, everything changes. After Rachel, pregnant with her fourth child, dies in a car accident and the baby miraculously survives, Kate upends her entire life to share parenting duties. Then on the first anniversary of Rachel's death, Kate and Shane take comfort in each other in a night that they both soon regret. Shane's been angry for a year, and now he feels guilty too - for sleeping with his wife's best friend and liking it . . . liking her. Kate's ability to read him like a book may have once sent Shane running, but their lives are forever entwined and they are growing closer. Now with Shane deployed for seven months, Kate is on her own and struggling with being a single parent. Shane is loving and supportive from thousands of miles away, but his homecoming brings a betrayal Kate never saw coming. So Kate's only choice is to fight for the future she deserves - with or without Shane. . .