Good and Perfect Gift, A: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny [Paperback]

Amy Julia Becker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2011

An Honest, Hopeful Look at Unexpected Challenges

Challenging surprises often lead to unexpected joy. Amy Julia opens eyes and softens hearts as she brings readers into her own story of disappointment turned to blessing. This is a journey of discovering strength through weakness, and the author learns to embrace the face that we are all dependent on God and one another. This books will inspire readers who appreciate beautiful writing coupled with deep insights about life and faith.

"Amy Julia Becker has the courage and grace to tell the truth. Whether you are a parent or not, whether the children in your life are 'typical' or not, this story will shake you, change you, and encourage you."--Andy Crouch, author, Culture Making

Editorial Reviews

Review

Becker (Penelope Ayers: A Memoir), a Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary graduate, knows how to grab a reader's heartstrings and never let go as she writes about her journey as a new mom to Penny, her first child, who has Down syndrome. The author keeps a journal in her early days as a mother, a time when her faith, her expectations, and her fears ran a gamut. Becker tells how impressed she has always been with intelligence, and now her little girl will lack this gift so important to Becker. Or would she? This beautifully written text explores how Becker and her husband deal with the news of having a child with a disability and the transformation they undergo as time passes. Each journal entry opens a new chapter of Penny's growth, and with every change in Penny comes a corresponding response of grateful joy in everyone else. Becker's work is introspective and theologically inquisitive, leading readers to ask the same questions this mother asks herself as her world tilted off its axis. --Publishers Weekly

From the Back Cover

Sometimes Joy Shows Up When You Least Expect It

Things don't always go as planned--especially when it comes to our children. When her first baby, Penny, is given a frightening diagnosis, Amy Julia's world comes crashing down. Could she continue to trust God's goodness through what felt like personal tragedy? But challenging surprises often lead to unforeseen joy, and disappointments can turn into blessings. This wise and beautiful book is more than a courageous story of raising a child against the odds--it is a journey through the unexpected ups and downs of life and the discoveries that come along the way.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers (September 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764209175
• ISBN-13: 978-0764209178
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #283,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Amy Julia Becker writes and speaks about family, faith, disability, and culture. A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House), named one of the Top Ten Religion Books of the Year by Publisher's Weekly, and Why I Am Both Spiritual and Religious (Patheos Press). Her most recent ebook, What Every Woman Needs to Know About Prenatal Testing: Insight From a Mom Who Has Been There was released in January, 2013.

Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Parents.com, First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Hartford Courant, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, and Books and Culture. She is a regular contributor to her.meneutics, and she blogs at Thin Places: www.patheos.com/community/thinplaces/

Amy Julia lives in Connecticut with her husband and her three children. Read more at www.amyjuliabecker.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Personal, Gritty, and Spiritually thoughtful September 9, 2011

By Elizabeth Ferguson

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

What I most appreciate about A Good and Perfect Gift is the honesty with which Amy Julia describes her journey with Penny and with God. Both the joyful and hurtful experiences are described with candor and authenticity. Though I do not have a child with specific disabilities, reading this book opened my eyes to what friends and extended family members experience with loved ones who do. I would recommend this book not only to a friend or family member whose life may be impacted by a disability, but to anyone whose faith has been disabled by unexpected life challenges. I think this book is a must have for your library....and a necessary addition to OBGYN offices and church libraries!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Positive Perspective on Parenting a Child with Disabilities October 22, 2011

By Nerd Girl

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

While I'm neither Christian nor the parent of a child with Down Syndrome, I am a high achieving perfectionist and the parent of a child on the autism spectrum. My own journey did not start at my child's birth, but when he was not speaking as a toddler, and mine was not part of a Christian framework, yet I still found asking many of the same questions and learning many of the same lessons Amy Julia Becker does in this memoir.

What I appreciated most was the positive portrayal of parenting a child with a disability. So often we parents are portrayed either as pitiable or as martyrs, and either portrayal assumes that the disabled child is either a burden or a problem to be fixed rather than a human being who is a full and rich part of our lives. It was refreshing to see someone insist on that humanness and individuality as Ms. Becker did.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A lovely, life-affirming story March 26, 2012

By N. B. Kennedy TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Amy Julia Becker not only has a good story to tell; she's a good storyteller as well. When their first child is born, Ms. Becker and her husband find themselves unexpectedly the parents of a daughter who is diagnosed with Down syndrome.

"The only word that came to mind was No," she writes of the moment of revelation. Moments later, she thinks, "I want to run away. Far away. Now."

Ms. Becker finds her worldview and her theology challenged when faced with the reality of a child whose physical and mental abilities will brand her as less than perfect in the eyes of the world. Yet, her Christian faith has taught her that "every good and perfect gift is from above." Is Penny a good and perfect gift?

I live in the same ambitious, striving area as Ms. Becker and I recognize only too well her struggle to reconcile her idea of what a child of hers should be able to achieve with the reality of what her child actually will be able to achieve. Here we constantly push our children to always work the hardest, be the best, under the thinly disguised trope of "giving them every opportunity to succeed." It's hard to back down from the societal ideal of perfection that we see modeled all around us.

Ms. Becker is open and transparent about her struggle to come to terms with their reality. Yet she also writes so well about the joy her daughter brings her, despite her fears and inner struggles. They are joys that every parent experiences -- all the "firsts" -- along with some that parents such as they alone can experience. "Our highs are going to be higher and our lows lower," her husband predicts.

I met Ms. Becker at an author event recently, and she said to me that the reality of holding her child in her arms was so much more life-affirming than the abstract idea of having a child with Down syndrome. Reading this book is like standing beside Ms. Becker, holding Penny in your arms. It's a lovely book, one that will have you looking with more compassion and understanding -- with more interest! -- at the people around you.