Book Release: “Made for a Different Land” {And a Giveaway!}

Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss is now available for purchase. Find it at Amazon here. Today, Hope Mommies’ executive director, Jennifer Parks, is sharing her foreword to the book.

Foreword

Lianna came into my life about three and a half years ago when I first read her writing at Hope Mommies. Hope Mommies is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization for women who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss. Each time a new post of hers was published on the blog, I devoured it immediately. She was able to articulate feelings and thoughts I carried in my heart for the Lord, and for my own daughter in heaven, that I had not yet found words to express. I felt a deep connection to her soul.

Through the years, I have had the privilege of watching Lianna minister to countless grieving mothers as we partnered on the leadership team for Hope Mommies. Her posts and comments were always dripping with the truth of the gospel and reminded me and other moms that our greatest trouble as grieving mothers was not that we were separated from our children for a short time, but rather, that our sin had separated us from our Creator for time and eternity unless or until we accepted the gift of salvation.

In Made for a Different Land, Lianna shares the story of her loss so that she can relate truths that helped her most during her grief. From the delivery to the funeral, from the first days and weeks at home, to attending a child’s birthday party after loss, and on to life in the years after—she writes about her eyes being lifted to Jesus and being led through grief by him.

Woven in between the chapters of her personal story are the words of other grievers being one month closer, one Christmas closer, one Easter closer, one year closer, and three years closer to glory. A prayer of hope, an open letter to a contributor’s baby, and a reflection on finally being in glory are also interwoven. Lianna and the other contributors have shared what I feel are some of the most sacred moments of their grief in an effort to bring hope where there can be hopelessness.

Reading Made for a Different Land made me recall my own grief journey and all that the Lord has done in and through my pain over the past eight years. The words of Lianna and the other contributors remind me to keep my eyes fixed on heaven and my heart anchored to the cross, where God holds his people near with his great love. We walk such a broken earth as a result of the fall and this world tries to rob and destroy all people and relationships through sin and death. It brings me to my knees in gratitude that this destruction is not the end. Jesus came to mend the wreckage of the fall and to reconcile lost sinners to a holy God through his completed work on the cross. This truth enables me to grieve my daughter’s death with hope for both the now and the “not yet.” He alone is the author of all things, good and redemptive, and it is only through him that we have the hope of deep and rich joy amid the sufferings of this life.

I have often witnessed how suffering grief as deep and wide as the loss of a very loved and wanted baby makes engaging in life again and having joy seem utterly impossible. When my own daughter, Paige, was stillborn at twenty-two weeks and five days, I was not sure if I was ever going to be okay again. It was all too heavy—the weight of my empty arms, the ache in my heart, the places in my home where she would have been but was not. Nothing felt secure. Everything seemed as if it were sand that could slip through the fingers of my clenched fists. My words were few and my prayers were often: Lord, I do not know how to go on. I need you. Help me.

Even now as I sit here writing, I cannot find the right words to express the feeling of losing a child to death on this earth. Horrific. Devastating. Earth-shattering. All these words are true, but for me, none of them fully convey the gravity of it all. The sting of death seemed very real. Kissing my daughter’s face for the last time before handing her off to the funeral home was agonizing. How could it be the last time that I would ever see my daughter’s face or hold her body against mine? My soul was downcast. My heart was broken. The reality of my child’s earthly body being placed into the grave desperately begged the question, “Do I believe that the gospel is really true?”

In the weeks and months following her heaven-going, there were days when I wanted nothing more than to pore over the Bible in search of answers to deliver comfort to my broken heart. Other days, I was so overcome with sorrow that I could not even reach for my Bible. It was on those days that I was fed the Word of God through friends, family, and books written by mothers who had gone through a similar experience to mine. I longed to feel that I was not alone. I wanted to be seen and understood. I yearned to know women who had been through this fire, and not only survived it, but were thriving in life here on earth and praising Jesus still. I wanted to feel alive again. I wanted joy again. I loved God, but I did not want to forget my daughter—and that desire took a deep hold. When my heart and mind did not know how to make sense of it all, reading books on grief and suffering helped me find the words needed to process my feelings and view them through the lens of the gospel.

Oh, how I would have loved a book such as this one! Like me, Lianna’s journey on this earth took a turn she never dreamed of with the death of her precious baby. Yet, she continued to love Jesus with her whole heart. She trusted that his sovereign plans were to prosper his kingdom and she believed that he had not forgotten his people.

Her story gives me courage to press on in this life on the days that are hard. Her words remind me that it was out of his goodness, and loving kindness, that he called her daughter home after only knowing the safety of a mother’s womb. And I rejoice in the hope of how many babies he has taken home in great kindness! I rejoice in them being “alive, full, and free” in him—as Lianna has put it. I praise him for the biblically-based hope that so many precious babies of families I have bonded with through Hope Mommies, church, and other friendships, have received ultimate healing in heaven—even though it hurts that healing did not happen this side of the veil. I praise him that as a believing mother I have been given such an eternal hope that I can resolvedly call myself a Hope Mom—an encouraging name coined by the Hope Mommies’ founder and one that is widely used within our organization. Hope Mom is a title that I proudly proclaim because it is only through him that I have the ultimate hope of salvation, the hope of reunion with my daughter one day, and the hope of experiencing deep joy amid the sufferings of this life.

God has a plan and purpose for the lives of his people—even in the hurt, even in the waiting, even in the tension of the “not yet.” I pray that God will use Made for a Different Land to encourage readers, whether or not they have personally experienced baby loss, with great hope and gospel truths. And specifically, I pray God will use this book in the lives of grieving mothers for what they perhaps cannot yet imagine: to help them live again and be testimonies to the gospel. Because the gospel is true! And one day there is a great restoration coming: those who belong to him will be raised from the dead and joined with him forever in a holy and perfect place where the hurts of this life will be only a distant memory.

—Jennifer Parks
Executive Director of Hope Mommies

Endorsements

“Charting the course of her own journey through sorrow and loss, Lianna Davis wrestles with the theological and practical questions that confront any parent who loses a child. If God could have prevented this, why did He allow it to happen? If we are sinners by nature, how can we be sure that an infant child is in heaven? How do you navigate the enigma of being a mother when you no longer have a child to mother? How can you move forward when your heart holds on to grief and does not want to be comforted?
Made for a Different Land is biblically faithful, theologically clear and rich in godly wisdom. May God use this moving, compelling and beautifully written book to bring comfort, strength and hope to all who read it.”
—Colin S. Smith, Senior Pastor, The Orchard Evangelical Free Church, President, Unlocking the Bible

“In the weeks, months, and years after a loss a mother needs more than anything to know that she’s not alone, particularly because the depths of grief are so isolating. When we miscarried our two babies, I was comforted by the words of women who had walked the same painful road. Lianna Davis has compiled a book that walks alongside grieving mothers, giving them biblical hope and a familiar friend. From stories of fellow mourning mothers to her scriptural reflections on her life after loss, Davis takes the reader to God and his eternal purposes—showing all who read that even in the darkness they are never alone.”
—Courtney Reissig, author, Glory in the Ordinary

“Made for a Different Land is a beautiful picture of what it means to grieve with hope. Lifting high the name of Jesus and his finished work in the gospel, this book will be such a help and encouragement to grieving mothers and those wanting to understand such grief.”
—Kristen Wetherell and Sarah Walton, co-authors, Hope When It Hurts

Printable Coloring Pages

Book contributor Sam Martin has created hope-filled coloring pages that are freely available for you to download by clicking here.

This week, we are hosting a giveaway for the release of Made for a Different Land. We invite you to participate by leaving a comment on this blog post, and then entering below through Rafflecopter to win a copy of the new book.

**UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed, and the winners are posted below. Congratulations to those who won. Your books will be sent to you shortly. Please watch for an email from us.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Jennie is the Executive Director for Hope Mommies.  She and her husband Brian live in Washington State and have four precious children together— Trenton who is 11, Paige who has been in Heaven with Jesus since August 2, 2010, Mason who is 6, and Cora Jane who they just welcomed to their family on June 13, 2018.  On an average day you can find her in jeans and a t-shirt, drinking tea, and dancing to worship music in the kitchen with her kiddos.  She loves the beach, going to the movies, taking a walk with no particular destination, peanut M&M’s, and listening to a good podcast.  She adores being a new creation in Christ and prays she reflects Him well on this earth.

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