She is My Child - Book Review

She is My Child, by Tammy Coulter, is a mother’s faith journey rearing a special needs daughter. Tammy and her husband Greg welcomed their second child, Ava, with love, patience, and an unshakeable faith in God. Ava developed normally until she reached 14 months old. Then, mother Tammy began keeping a journal and saved the texts she posted to prayer warriors throughout the many years she and Ava struggled with a rare, progressive genetic disorder, Morquio Syndrome.

Tammy’s memoir is the result of her documentation of Ava’s disorder and their frequent flyer miles as they traveled from Tennessee to Chicago for evaluation, testing, searching for treatments, and later as a participant in clinical trials. Tammy includes her spiritual journey as she struggles with emotions and fears for her daughter’s health. She relates how particular Scripture and Bible Studies encourage her when she’s emotionally bankrupt and how her faith is strengthened through each trial and surgery that Ava endures.

Ava’s diagnosis predicts that she will have limited growth and perhaps problems with internal organs, vision, and hearing. Through research, the aid of caring doctors, and much prayer, Tammy is able to enroll five-year-old Ava into an experimental drug therapy program in Chicago. Imagine flying from Nashville to Chicago with a special-needs child for six to eight hours of IV infusion and tests and then returning by air. Imagine repeating the schedule every week for two years. Rain, snow, flight delays, cancelations, and layovers would stress out the average traveler. Tammy’s travel travails are intense reading for any air traveler, whether frustrated parents flying with cranky children or travelers sympathetic to Tammy and Ava’s airport and airline mishaps.

Despite the unimaginable stress, Tammy’s ability to cope is through prayer and her faith that God will take care of Ava and her. Scripture references are directly related to the turmoil she experiences and extend into the reader’s life.
Ava is pictured as a typical child, afraid of needles and often crying in pain. Her good humor and sense of fun are an important contrast to what could be a depressing story. Ava’s shy but perky personality endears her to her doctors, nurses, and the airlines, hotel, and hospital personnel who see her regularly. In her mother’s words, she becomes “quite spoiled,” especially on her birthday, which she must spend in Chicago away from her father and older brother. Tammy shares the most difficult periods and most significant victories in Ava’s and her life with encouragement and humor.

She is My Child is filled with smart, witty, and magical writing. Tammy, Ava, and those around them, embrace their beliefs which become their salvation in this heartbreaking story about the ties that bring people together and the difficulties of facing the truth. Readers will be empowered and inspired by the author’s faith in God’s Hand in their lives.