From This Day Forward - 5 *****


vvvvvFrom This Day Forward is a book about life.  Life is ugly and can be dark at times.  Very dark.  Especially when you feel like you are going through it alone.  Amy and Matt were brutally honest in telling their personal story.  That makes a reader connect.  'You are real and have struggles?  So do I.'

Amy's story is very very disturbingly similar to mine.  Alcohol was for partying.  Or pity partying.  Or just for a Tuesday.  The fun party years had passed but alcohol was still a problem for Amy to treat as a simple beverage and not a means to an end.  An addiction is real and unless you have been there it is hard to understand why a person does some of the things that they do.

Amy explains how things were in her mind and it is so refreshing for me to read someone else's battle.  And how they were able to come through.  The main difference between us is that I didn't have children and I thank God for that.  Everything in my life suffered because of the addiction including my marriage.  When I think back, which I don't like to do, I wonder how and why Chad put up with me.  In this book you see a love story much like mine in which things hit rock bottom and when they were at their lowest love, understanding, perseverance, patience and self control came into play.  You see how, with all these things, you can win a battle that is bigger than you and how a marriage that is meant to be can be saved.

me and chad

Photography by Liz and Ryan

Thank you Amy and Matt for your vulnerability to share the hardest season of your life.

Cheers to life, marriage and sharing stories about both!