Heaven is Here (Stephanie Nielson)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from my local library.

Stephanie Nielsen is a well-known "Mormon Blogger." She was well-known before she was in a plane crash with her husband and his flight instructor which killed the instructor (who was also a close friend of theirs), left her husband with serious injuries and burns, and her with severe burns over 80% of her body.

This book chronicles her life before the crash and her life through recovery and now.

The first part of the book was difficult for me to read. I can't relate to her idyllic life as a child, their courtship, and their young married life. Everything was so perfect. I don't doubt that she really sees her life that way, and it certainly seems to be that way. It just felt like reading a fiction story... a fairy tale, almost.

Once the book went into the accident and the recovery, I couldn't put it down. I should have been doing my normal routine of "Read a Chapter, Clean a Room. Read a Chapter, Clean a Room." But I couldn't stop reading. I could very easily put myself into the emotions of the medical trauma. My situation was not even on the same scale of hers... but I felt enough of the emotions of it to understand what she described. I shed many a tear reading this book. I cried for the fear she felt, the despair, the anxiety of it all.

As a mother, I cried with her pain of waiting for her children learning to connect with her again.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book. I check in on her blog once in a while, and I can't relate to her lifestyle. I look at her heritage and all the blessings and good fortune that come with that long line of shared faith and an established place in a family and in the community. It seems so idealistic... again, almost too idealistic. (Which, I know, seems an odd thing to think considering the very big challenges she has in her life because of the accident.) But I have always admired her courage, her perseverance, and how she has triumphed over her incredible trials.

Having said all that... I loved this book. It is beautifully written. Very, very touching, in the deepest part of my soul.

Clean. There are a few references to marital intimacy... all moral in context. Her dad once says, "Hell" and she uses it again to reference where it felt she was during the aftermath of the accident.