Moody Partner: Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families

I've found knowing about the five love languages to be so helpful as a wife, mom, and teacher.  So when I found out that Jolene Philo who blogs about special needs kids at Different Dreams mentioned that she was looking for parents to interview as part of a project. I jumped at the opportunity!

Here is an example of what the love languages are and how to live them out at home.  But with special needs children, many who are unable to express themselves accurately or at all, it can be much more challenging to implement the love languages in your home.  That's where this new version of the book comes in.

Overall Review:  This book helps you live out the most important fruit of the Spirit- Love.  It gives practical, fun, and personable ways to live in abundant love even when the one you love functions in a unique manner.  But more importantly, it is a great reminder for the reader that love is love and whether you are loving your spouse, neurotypical child, or special needs child, or friend, the focus needs to be on your heart and the receiver's heart and the goal needs to be attacked not as a fix, but as a way to have a connected, solid relationship with another human being.  Joy should be in this connection, in any love language and life.  This is the reason we chose to parent a child from a hard place who sought out love in the most unlovable ways.  We had the Holy Spirit equipping us to share unconditional love as our only real job.  

Things I liked about the book:

• Fast, easy read. (less than 2 hours even with interruptions)
• Design of the book- for special needs families- but also for teachers, caregivers, therapists, doctors/nurses, anyone who works with special needs kids. 
• Book formatting
• information extras: defines ABLE account, IEP, 504 in a grayscale box
• summaries: key questions or tips in grayscale boxes
• easy to read and refer back to: headings, subheadings, grayscale boxes, etc.   
• chapter summaries- some are: putting it all together, others are tips, or bulleted concepts to apply
• appendix of resources (those not included directly in the book text)
• diverse perspective- 40 families are represented in the stories of this book and their real life examples are the ideas.   
• Content of the book is beyond the love languages, it includes ways to enjoy and support your child and encouragement that it's not your job to fix anything about your child, but to love them well and remind their team of support people that this is the key to quality life and growth.  
• The truth: practical tips from experience shared about meeting your child's most important need- unconditional love.  
• New experts opinions shared and I have new resources to consult for support.  

What I wondered about or could be tweaked:

• I wanted even more time on ideas, strategies, tips from those in the trenches. 
• I was surprised at the time spent on loving your spouse, caring for your marriage, and caretaker care, but I do know that all of this truly needs investment even when there isn't time in the stress of parenting a special needs child, but you can love abundantly without your tank being full. 
• Lack of scripture and biblical input throughout the book

Some quotes/memes:

this book is a simple and effective tool...

Thankful to partner with Moody Publishing and have an advance copy to review.