Children are a blessing, and all children can present challenges to any parent. But parents of children with disabilities know and experience unique challenges. Diane Dokko Kim, who has a child with autism, has words of encouragement for parents in Unbroken Faith: Spiritual Recovery for the Special Needs Parent.


This book of testimony, devotionals, prayers, and scripture hits on themes that will ring true to parents of children with disabilities. Kim writes with vulnerability, admitting her own sense of unpreparedness and inadequacy as a parent. She writes of the grief of discovering one's child has a disability, whether in an ultrasound, in the delivery room, or even years after the child is born. Yet she points to the great cloud of witnesses in scripture who "demonstrate that I can weep and worship at the same time."


Each short chapter offers stories from her own life and a few others, practical considerations for parents, relevant scripture, a prayer, and questions for reflection. Obviously all families' experiences are different, but Kim points out how we all have the same access to God. With great honesty, she reminds us that, especially in the Western church, we might be expecting life in Christ to be marked by comfort and ease. As we experience disability in our families, we may face pain and injustice. We face the reality that our children may never "victoriously cross the threshold of adult independence." We realize that the world may view our child as lesser because of his or her disabilities. Kim writes, "Our child with a disability may not be the one we expected--or the idealized child we wanted. But God will repurpose disability, to refashion us into spiritual warriors and witnesses we didn't know we could be."


Unbroken Faith is brutally honest, scripturally sound, and ultimately hopeful. These selections will help parents of children with disabilities feel a little less alone and isolated, and will encourage them to look to the scripture and its author for hope and truth.




Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

This was an open and honest account from a mother of a child with differences. I longed for some of the stories and passages to be a bit more hopeful and yet I was appreciate of such an honest account. I believe this book will help each of us to love each other and our children with a whole lot more grace and understanding. Diane was brave to pour her heart out onto the pages of this book and I am grateful that she did.

I am a mother of an Autistic son. I also have a son that has sever ADHD with a sensory disorder and a son who is partially deaf, so I know about the ups and downs of have a disabled child. There is nothing more important than hope. Hope that you can have the strength to get through the tough times. Hope that your child will be ok. Hope that God will take care of you. This book was so full of despair that it actually made me really sad for the author.

I know that living with an autistic child is hard and the struggle is real, but reading about it without the hope of a tomorrow, just makes me want to give up.

Every chapter was full the "oh woe is me," that it was hard to find any hope in the Bible verse and quotes that filled most the book. Where is the hope? A strategically placed Bible verse does you know good if the author doesn't learn something from it, take strength from it.

The book read like a journal or daily devotional, which isn't a bad thing. Many mothers with special needs children would love an autism daily devotional with versus to strengthen them for the day and stories of how to overcome that pit of despair. With a little work, this book could become that.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.