A New Kind of Normal: Hope-Filled Choices When Life Turns Upside Down

I am always at a loss at how to help someone I know who has experienced a loss. I commit to pray for them, and then order Carol's book, When I Lay my Issac Down. A woman I sent her book to let me know that it helped her more than anything did when she lost her teenaged daughter to leukemia. This book is just as profound, with scriptural application to encourage their faith. This world is not our home, dear brothers and sisters. Heaven is a place with no suffering and pain, and is our promised destination when we put our faith in Christ.

I purchased this book after hearing Carol Kent speak at a women's conference. It is an encouraging resource for those of us who have been through or are presently going through trials. This reminds that God is involved in all that happens with us will help us to grow stronger along the way.

This book is a must read for anyone who has gone through or is going through a big change in their lives. It definitely puts things in perspective!

"A New Kind of Normal" picks up where Carol Kent's first book left off. Agonzing over their only child's sentence of life in prison without parole, Carol and her husband Gene are faced with piecing their lives back together. They move to Florida, near the prison where their son is incarcerated. In between visits to Jason, Carol and Gene see their ministry moving in a different direction. They reach out to others whose lives have also been altered by tragedy, but who have not lost their faith in God. Those stories are in this book, alternating with Carol and Gene's ongoing struggle to make sense of all that has happened.

Carol is refreshingly and painfully honest, admitting that she still questions God as to why He allowed Jason to murder his wife's first husband. She shares her sorrow on the disintegrating relationship with Jason's wife, April. In their efforts to help April and her young daughters, Carol realizes she and Gene did more harm than good.

This isn't an easy book to read, but it provides great help for those in crisis.

I can relate with Carol in this book as my son is incarcerated, also.
It has helped me get though it without falling apart.

Reading a book like "A New Kind of Normal" causes me to reflect. First, what would I do in a situation like Mrs. Kent's? Certainly extend love to my child, but would I uproot my family to go live near him? Would I take all of my resources to try to get his sentence reduced or have him released even knowing he was guilty beyond question? I don't know, since I've never been faced with this particular set of circumstances.

However, the love that the Kents show their son is remarkable in its sacrifice and determination. I believe they have shown Christ to the ones that have crossed their path during this extremely difficult season. They have given us a shining example of making the most out of what they've been given. They give their Sundays to visit their son, they have forged friendships with those at the prisons where their son is incarcerated, and others with whom they've shared their story--painful though it is. They love their daughter-in-law and granddaughters, though they have no communication with them. They have not lost hope....if their son never sees the outside of a prison again, then they know there's a better life later.

The other stories that were woven throughout the book were excellent, as they showed pain from all sources. Everyone should be able to find a story with which to identify in this book.

It would be easy to question the author and to think that I'd make some different choices than she, but that's the unique story in each experience. Making decisions based on what we believe is right at the time and going forward the best way we know how is our privilege. And therein lies the author's story of her new kind of normal.

Thank you Carol for sharing so candidly. All our lives experience a hoplessness. This helped me re-evaluate mine.
I was reminded of a friend who attended USNA.