A New Kind of Normal: Hope-Filled Choices When Life Turns Upside Down [Hardcover]

Carol Kent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2007

Carol Kent has lived every parent's nightmare. After her only son was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Carol's life took a permanent detour. She and her husband, Gene, have been adjusting ever since, moving to Florida to be near the prison, starting a new ministry for prison inmates and their families, and sharing the faithfulness of God with anyone who will listen.

A New Kind of Normal begins with the story of that horrible night when Carol and Gene learned their son had been arrested, but it doesn't end there. In fact, Carol knows what it means to live with an unthinkable circumstance that will never change-and to still make hope-filled choices. Through the eight chapters in this book, Carol will use their own story, the story of Mary mother of Jesus, and stories of women who have experienced their own "new normal" to share how God has led them to choose life, gratitude, vulnerability, involvement, forgiveness, trust, and action.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Normal isn't a word that makes sense to Kent, a bestselling author and speaker whose only son murdered his wife's ex-husband in 1999 to protect his stepdaughters from suspected abuse. Kent's previous book, When I Lay My Isaac Down, powerfully recounted her family's dramatic and wrenching story of placing their son's life sentence and their shattered future dreams on God's altar as the biblical Abraham did with his son Isaac. Kent's latest writing continues this harrowing story of rebuilding life where no "normal" exists; where holidays and Sundays are spent in prison visitation lines, and where pleas for leniency go unheard. Kent and her spouse employ dynamic journal entries and soulful personal stories to recount the ongoing, sometimes debilitating, journey to hold fast to God's hope despite dismal circumstances. Kent's inner ache is transparent and her pain raw, yet she delves into trusting God when despair is overwhelming, relief is beyond reach, privacy is no option, and loss overpowers all other emotions. In the midst of the pain—more in spite of it—the Kents choose hope, every day, every hour. This is their message of triumph to all Christians who suffer yet continue to hold fast to God's promised provision. (June)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (June 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0849901995
• ISBN-13: 978-0849901997
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Parent & Adult Child

More About the Author

Carol Kent is a popular international public speaker best known for being dynamic, humorous, encouraging, and biblical. Founder of Speak Up With Confidence (a communications training seminar), Speak Up Speaker Services (a speakers bureau), and Speak Up for Hope (a prison ministry), Carol is an expert on public speaking, on writing, and on encouraging people to hold on to hope when life's circumstances turn out differently from their dreams.

Carol has spoken internationally in South Africa, Germany, Bulgaria, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Guatemala, Mexico, and Canada. She regularly appears on a wide variety of nationally syndicated radio and television broadcasts.

She entered the public eye with the story of her only son's imprisonment for murder, a journey she shared in the powerful book, When I Lay My Isaac Down. This painful experience has led Carol and her husband, Gene, down a long road of sacrifice and redemption.

Carol holds a master's degree in communication arts and a bachelor's degree in speech education. Her bestselling books include: A New Kind of Normal (starred review in Publishers Weekly), When I Lay My Isaac Down (winner of Christian Retailers Choice Award), Becoming a Woman of Influence, Mothers Have Angel Wings, Secret Longings of the Heart, Tame Your Fears, Speak Up With Confidence, and Detours, Tow Trucks, and Angels in Disguise (all NavPress). She has also co-written with Karen Lee-Thorp the Designed for Influence Bible Studies (six books in the series, NavPress). Carol was the co-author and general editor of the Kisses of Sunshine Series of five books (Zondervan). Her articles have been published in a wide variety of magazines and in on-line resources.

Her new book, Between a Rock and a Grace Place, will be released by Zondervan in October. This book is the ongoing story of her journey with her son and it includes riveting letters he wrote from behind the razor wire of a maximum security prison. It also addresses the felt needs of people who hurt, and instills a surprisingly new way of thinking, leaving readers irresistibly drawn to see God's astonishing "grace places" in the middle of their roadblocks.

To book Carol for speaking engagements, or for information on her itinerary, or go to www.CarolKent.org. Join Carol on Facebook, follow her on Twitter@carolkentspeaks, or read her blog on the above website.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope amidst unbearable pain, August 22, 2007

By 

Jeanne Zornes (Wenatchee, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A New Kind of Normal: Hope-Filled Choices When Life Turns Upside Down (Hardcover)

Carol Kent answers--with depth, compassion, and hope--what faith in God can enable you to do when your world falls apart. In this followup book to When I Lay My Isaac Down, she moves beyond the first lessons she learned about the sorrows of living in a fallen world--specifically, her son's arrest and life sentence for murder. A New Kind of Normal picks up the journey with guidance for what she calls "hope-filled choices." These include decisions to survive, persevere, be vulnerable, forgive, trust, love with open hands, be thankful, and choose purposeful action. If you have suffered greatly, and think all hope is lost, this book will encourage you to look up to God and His desire to reconstruct your life. You'll meet people who, like Carol and Gene Kent, went through excruciating personal pain: a severely disabled child, depression, family rifts, business failures, terminal brain cancer, a spouse's pornography addiction, wayward children, abortion, broken engagement, and the hardships of a military spouse's overseas deployment. If these problems aren't yours, but belong to people you care about, get this book in their hands. Within a week of reading it, I took my copy to a friend whose husband, like the Kents' son, is in prison for murder. Prepare to grieve anew with the Kents and those who allowed their own stories to be told, but also prepare to see the sovereignty of God even in imperfect and grievous circumstances.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have, June 13, 2007

By 

Penny J. Williams "love to read" (jackson, mi usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A New Kind of Normal: Hope-Filled Choices When Life Turns Upside Down (Hardcover)

This is a must have for anyone who is or has experienced a life altering circumstance. It is filled with hope giving encouragement and skills to move forward in and through difficult situations. Both the author and her husband reveal a raw honesty of their situation that only enhances the readers ability to connect and know that they too can move forward. This book would be of interest to both men and women.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Journey to a New Normal, August 1, 2007

By 

Richard R. Blake (Bridgman, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A New Kind of Normal: Hope-Filled Choices When Life Turns Upside Down (Hardcover)

The words of the verdict, "We the jury find Jason Paul Kent guilty of murder in the first degree" changed, forever, the lives of Carol and Gene Kent. Their only son, Jason Paul, was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

"A New Kind of Normal" is the story of the choices they had to make to go on living after their dreams for their son were shattered. Carol incorporates the stories of other bruised and brokenhearted people who have been held captive by their trauma, addictions, abuse, or abortion.

Throughout the book, Carol illustrates parallels, from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, those emotions she was feeling as she relinquished her son to God.

Carol introduces the reader to choices that offer hope for a new kind of normal, meaningful life in the midst of adversity. Trust, perseverance, gratitude, vulnerability, relinquishment, forgiveness, and purposeful action are among the lessons Carol and Gene are experiencing in their new normal.

The chapters on relinquishment and vulnerability were especially meaningful to me. I appreciated the way both Carol and Gene made themselves vulnerable as they shared entries, telling of their journey, from their personal journals.

This book is for anyone who has faced an uncertain future because of an event in time, a "marker moment," which changed their lives forever. This is a remarkable story of a personal pursuit of God while being pummeled by testing and circumstances.