Sexual abuse was my lemon. Forgiveness is my lemonade, passion and purpose for giving to lives that are broken.

My amazing redemption story of hope relates to overcoming severe adversities with the love of my life who I have been married to for 50 years. We have experienced extreme losses in spite of our love for one another. Loss of my childhood innocence by incest by a grandpa and uncle, clergy preteen sexual abuse, rape at age 17 and sexual sins in my marriage as a result of my husband’s dad’s taking his own life at age 59.

P.T.S.D. shut my body down. I couldn’t start my period or conceive a child so we adopted our first born son. I had no idea it was all related to the trauma of my past and present circumstances. God began to heal my deeply wounded soul when I faced, confronted and chose to forgive the elderly clergy for sexually assaulting me and others. Seven weeks after I chose to forgive him, he fell down the stairs and broke his back and died!

Writing my book, Listen to the Cry of the Child, is when all the years of P.T.S.D. and trauma came flooding back as I began to grieve all that I had lost and come to grips with it all. I now have a God given passion and purpose out of my brokenness to help others just like me. I speak in prisons all over the world as well as to sex offenders who hear my story of forgiveness. Our marriage is stronger and filled with more love than when we were first married 50 years ago.

www.listentothecry.org
http://ahamoment.com/moments/3761