Book: The Gift of Love: One Woman's Journey to save a life
Author: Amy Clipston
Pages: 222
Publisher: Zondervan
I received: Softcover edition
Type: religious, true life, inspirational, Christian life.
Reviewed for: BookLookBloggers.
So What Did I Think?
I read this book the week after I recovered from surgery. It is a simple book as I was quite groggy and still able to follow the storyline well.
It is a true story written by Amy Clipston about dealing with her husband's kidney disease. She talks about it's affect upon her husband and it's effect on her and her own life. Throughout the book her love for God and her family shines through.
In this book I was introduced to the idea of paired donors. This is where the spouse of the transplant needing patient offers up a kidney in the hopes to find a matching pair... where the spouse of another person needing a transplant also offers a kidney for transplant. Doing this made a difference...it sped up the time needed for a transplant to occur. Her husband survived and she gave up her kidney to help another person survive. Her love for her husband enabled her to do go through this surgery.
Amy Clipston is an author, and her royalties from her books enabled her to help support her family during this difficult stage of their lives. Dealing with the deaths of the fathers from both sides of the family, supporting her mother through her father's decline, raising their children, and dealing with Joe being unable to work full-time due to his health issues. Being an author of Christian literature also garnered her a larger prayer support basis which was very important to her and Joe as they went through the transplant procedures.
What did I take away from this book? How God worked everything out for them. It was all God. Moving them to another state, helping them work through insurance issues, and paying the bills, and dealing with family deaths. God worked it all out. He even gave Amy the strength to continue despite her fear.
Would I recommend this book? Yes and no. I disliked the "me" focus of the book. I can see the book being very helpful to others struggling with the same issues, but not a book I will pick up again to read..it isn't compelling enough for me to do so. On the other hand... I know people who would thoroughly enjoy this story. Like me they would see God in action and it is VERY good to see God in action.