Gift in Grief

We recently received a gift in grief. It was unexpected, but God knew what He was doing.

My children are officially illustrators with their drawings published in a wonderful book! Let me share how this came about and God’s hand in it all.

When my eldest daughter, Abigail, died in July of 2021, we took 2-months off from homeschool lessons (we usually homeschool year-round). When we started homeschooling again in September, my children no longer spent time creating art or writing stories for fun as they had before.

So, when I got an email from author Jack Dublin in November offering my children the opportunity to illustrate his upcoming book, I knew it was the perfect way to bring some creativity back into our home.

Long story short – Jack Dublin held a contest, five of my children entered, and all five had drawings selected for his newest book Into What Splendor (along with other rising artists). It was very exciting and it did just what I had hoped – encouraged them to express themselves through creating again.

This was a gift in grief for our family. This gift was even more obvious when the book was published and we received the signed hardcover copies to read the story for ourselves.

I read the book out loud to my children in one sitting and we stopped several times to discuss and express the amazing way the book related to us and our lives. The story even has a scene where a character sings “You Are My Sunshine” and that is my special song for Abigail Rose (I sang it to her almost every day of her life). Wow!

SCROLL DOWN TO READ MY REVIEW

Into What Splendor

Into What Splendor

This story takes place on a farm. My children are growing up on a small farm and are experiencing all that comes with raising a variety of farm animals. This story described farm life in a truly authentic style!

This story is about death. It is not gruesome, but it is realistic. My children could relate to it in a very raw way, but it did not cause them to be scared or even cry.

This story is about grief. My children have experienced the loss of farm animals, but they have also experienced the truly heartwrenching grief of losing their sister. While this story is about farm animals processing grief, there is also a deeper storyline for those who understand loss and grief.

This story is about hard lessons, choices, love, & forgiveness. I think it covers a lot of real-life emotions and relationship dynamics in a child-friendly way.

This story is fun and funny. It does cover some tough subjects, but the author has a great style of writing that makes it a fun book to read out loud. There is humor woven in that made my children laugh out loud.

My children range in age from 8 to 17 and all of them enjoyed it. I think it is definitely worth adding to your library. We also own (and love) two other books by Jack Dublin, which are unique western tall-tells/sci-fi with Christian morals woven in.

The Lost and Found Journal of a Miner 49er: Vol. 1
The Lost and Found Journal of a Miner 49er: Vol. 2