I want to highlight Shannon Woodward, who blogs at Wind Scraps, as someone who has blessed me beyond words this week. I just finished reading her book, Inconceivable, and after reading her personal story I feel like I know her as a friend now.

Here’s how the back cover describes Shannon’s book:

Inconceivable is the remarkable true-life story of Shannon Woodward, a woman who stopped waiting her life away. Woodward revisits eighteen years of personal frustration, pain, and anger. She speaks from her own experience to show how women can have peace in their disappointment by surrendering their hopes and hearts, their dreams and losses, to the One who heals all things broken.

Shannon’s story begins in January 1988, when she and her husband are meeting with the doctor who tells her the dreaded news — that she will not be able to conceive. She said his words became like “a constant, haunting hum in my head, like a song you can’t shake — a song with the power to drive you insane. His voice was inescapable.”

From this point on, she and her husband begin a journey together that makes me weep, even as I type these words. Shannon explores her pain and subsequent healing in intimate detail for readers. She takes us back to her childhood, where she first looks out at the stars and wonders if God even exists, and she shares with us how her faith began to grow.

Her book is not filled with generalizations; instead, she takes us with her to every scene, filling each memory with description and dialogue which reads like the best of storytelling. We reach the point with her when she and her husband decide to adopt — and we agonize with her frustration when birth mother after birth mother changes her mind.

One of the most poignant scenes in the book is when she and her husband are bringing home their first adopted son, Zachary, whose name means, “The Lord has remembered.” As their new little son is bundled in soft blankets in the car seat, she and her husband look up and see an oversized, lighted marquis hovering above a used car lot. In bold black letters, the sign reads, “Congratulations, Dave and Shannon. It’s a boy.” They never learned who wrote that message.

The book takes us up to the present, where we see how Shannon’s journey has helped her become a mother to many. She has an active ministry in mentoring and encouraging hundreds of women through her speaking and writing. As a pastor’s wife, she’s able to come in contact with women seeking hope and guidance every day. What a blessing that she moved her ministry beyond the walls of her church and now can reach the world through her writing.

There are some books I read once, then set aside, without feeling a change. Shannon Woodward’s book is one I’ll read again and again, always remembering how the blessing of motherhood is a gift not to be taken lightly. Shannon’s pain and joys have now become a part of me.

I remember how I felt when I had an ultrasound with a pregnancy I miscarried, and the ultrasound technician said to me, “I’m sorry. There’s no heartbeat.” Then she picked up the phone to call my midwife and said, “Can I send Heather back in? She’s got an incomplete.”

My pain at that loss at 12 weeks was miniscule compared to what Shannon’s book describes. But it was still a death for me and involved a grieving process.

I’m so thankful to have this book to recommend as a helpful resource for women who are exploring this journey they never intended to begin. The back of the book contains a reader’s guide which includes discussion questions for each chapter. At the beginning of the reader’s guide, Shannon writes:

I pray you find peace — and that your life becomes a testimony to all you meet about the patient wooing and healing power of your God. May he fill your life with joy, purpose, and satisfaction.

May God bless many lives through this book!