Journey to Life is a gritty, thought-provoking fictionalized tale crafted from the real-life harrowing experiences of the author and her professional counseling clientele. The story is interspersed with life-changing insights gathered from over 17 years of working with couples as a Christian lay counselor and more recently as a board certified coach and relationship coaching specialist. These insights into human emotions are so real, so seemingly insurmountable that few books dare to explore them. The story follows middle-aged Travis as he slips under the placid surface of alcoholism, only to be overcome by an unexpected, powerful, frightening undertow that sweeps away his successful life and everyone he loves.
Madly in love with his stunning wife Ashley, their marriage was born on the shores of paradise. Both hot-tempered, the fireworks of their arguments begin lighting up the sky more and more often. Tiring from the fighting, Travis begins to withdraw, soaking his increasing bitterness in 80-proof comfort. But the fuller he fills himself with alcohol, the emptier his marriage gets. Discovering his fling with a woman in Las Vegas, Ashley orders him out of their house and out of her life, taking the children with her.
Completely alone, at the very bottom of the arc of his life, and with no motivation to rise up, Travis lies in bed in a dark house as dark as his heart. Driven by the call of alcohol, he makes a rare trip to the grocery store and runs into Jennifer, a bubbly woman he had briefly met years ago. Learning of his troubles, she is reminded of her own journey of healing from abuse and insists on helping him—against his will at first. Persuading him to hire her as his housekeeper, she unselfishly and persistently begins opening the blinds in his house, and in his life, and starts him on the path of healing.
An unpredictable and heart-warming series of unlikely events takes Travis and Ashley from the depths of bitter separation with Travis down on his knees in front of addiction, to the heights of reconciliation at the top of the Space Needle.
On his path of healing, Travis discovers the painful consequences of his former neglect and mistreatment of his children. Both he and his son unexpectedly end up at the same auditorium, where his son curses him in front of the audience. It is a long, imperfect, surprising journey to reconciliation between father and children.
Much too realistic to be a happily-ever-after fable, Journey to Life will fill the reader with solid, achievable hope—a hope requiring scratchy, faith-filled work and persistent love, but also a hope liberally scattered with the supernatural sparkle of joy, leading to an abundant life.