Our Surprised by Motherhood Book Club starts this Monday September 8th. Everyone welcome!

Get your book:

If you haven’t already, make sure you pick up a copy of the book. It’s a steal on Amazon over here. And if you order here through DaySpring you can get free shipping if you buy two or more books – just use the code BLOOMBOOK.

Weekly Schedule:

Just click over here to go grab and download a free book mark with the entire schedule.

It will run like this each week:

Every Monday: Discussion video posted on the blog

Every Monday Night: Live Q&A on Twitter using the hashtag #surprisedbymotherhood

Every Wednesday: Questions and Answers posted on the blog.

Every Friday: A Free, Useful, help-you-hold-onto-your-sanity Printable Posted on the blog for all book club readers.

MONDAY 9/8 WEEK 1:
Intro: Why I Wrote This Book: Because You Are My People
Chp 1: Motherhood Is a Superpower
Chp 2: Why You Can’t Possibly Know What to Expect When You’re Expecting

MONDAY 9/15 WEEK 2:
Chp 3: From Zululand with Love
Chp 4: A Great, Big Man Named Chuck
Chp 5: Two Funerals and a Baby Shower

MONDAY 9/22 WEEK 3:
Chp 6: Because Sometimes Becoming a Mom Is like Moving to a Foreign Country
Chp 7: There Is No Road Map

MONDAY 9/29 WEEK 4:
Chp 8: What Brave Looks Like
Chp 9: There’s Nothing Routine about the Routine

MONDAY 10/6 WEEK 5:
Chp 10: How to Fall in Like
Chp 11: When You’re Scared Motherhood Means Missing Out on Your Life

MONDAY 10/13 WEEK 6:
Chp12: And Then after Eighteen Years, I Rediscovered My Mom
Chp 13: Jesus Loves Me This I Know, for My Children Taught Me So
Epilogue

What’s the book about:

Most people who talk about motherhood start out by telling you how much they always wanted to be a mom. That is not my story. I was the girl whose mom died a week after she turned 18, the girl who swore off motherhood, the girl who believed her story had to be bigger than just being someone’s mother.

Today I’m the woman who believes that God doesn’t ask us to trade who we are for the label of “Mom.” Rather, he builds all the courage and calling of a lifetime into a story line big enough and rich enough to encompass kids, passion, work, creativity, and dreams that don’t end in the labor and delivery ward.

I’m also the girl who believes that Jesus saved the best till last when I finally became a mother.

But I’m just as convinced He would have loved me the same whether I ever had kids or not. It’s right there on the front dedication page of the book.

This is my broken, backwards journey from losing a mother toward becoming one. This is my testimony that all the “how to” and “what to expect” books in the world can never truly prepare you for the sheer exhilaration, joy, and terrifying love that accompanies motherhood.

This book is a reminder that being a mom isn’t about succeeding at some parenting checklist — it’s about what motherhood prepares us for while we’re busy preparing for it; how a new identity brings new meaning for our future and new appreciation of our past; and how there is wonder to be found in the daily merry-go-round of dishes, laundry and tiny humans.

This book is the one I wish I’d had in my hands nine years ago when I was certain I was failing motherhood.

This isn’t a “how-to” book, it’s simply my “me-too” story.

This is the book I wrote for me. And for you.

This book is for us.

So I can’t wait to chat with you all about it and compare how motherhood has both surprised and healed us.

Meet you back here Monday!