A Blessed Child

A famine relief expert, a Canadian Red Cross nurse, and an Ethiopian orphan experience the power of the Holy Spirit and ignite a spiritual revolution.

Every summer throughout their childhood, Erika, Molly and Laura, half-sisters by different mothers, gather on the magical Baltic island of Hammarso to stay with their charismatic father, Isak. Until one year when a childhood betrayal causes an incident of such senseless cruelty that it alters forever each sister's life.

Provides parents with advice on using Jewish teachings from the Torah and Talmud to overcome struggles with raising children, nurture strengths and uniqueness, and encourage respectfulness towards their parents and others.

Take a moment to appreciate life's little blessings. When morning comes, I rise from bed and shake the sleepies from my head. Before I'm even getting dressed, I count the ways that I am blessed. This book of blessings follows a young child from morning to night, celebrating the simple and sweet things to be thankful for in life: ten little fingers, ten little toes, a playground to share, drums to beat, a comfortable chair, a favourite book, and family to love. With soothing rhymes and cozy illustrations, this book is the perfect way to begin or end your child's day.

Isak Lovenstad is a pioneering obstetrician - and a powerful, charismatic womanizer. Every summer he gathers his three daughters by different wives to the windswept Baltic island of Hammarsö. Here Erika, Molly, and Laura know, if only for the season, what it is to be a family, and here, in the society of children, each undergoes the rites of growing up. Though many alliances form and dissolve, none is comparable to Erika's bond with Ragnar, a rebellious misfit whose intensity makes them inseparable. But when they turn fourteen, and their relationship threatens to relegate Erika to Ragnar's outcast state, she turns away suddenly - a common enough teenage betrayal that nonetheless precipitates an incident of such senseless cruelty as to alter forever each sister's life. Twenty-five years later, returning to Hammarsö to see their father - now eighty-four, estranged, and in year-round exile there - the three women confront, finally, the spectre of that awful summer whose mark each has since carried. Bold and starkly beautiful - a haunting parable of innocence lost. Praise for Grace: 'Extraordinarily fearless . . . moving and convincing . . . This is a work of the most intricate and impressive artistry Independent on Sunday 'Clear-sighted, large-hearted fiction without illusions but never without pity - or without humour' Independent 'A spare and elegant novella . . . Ullmann carefully teases out both the fragility and the unexpected tenacity of human identity, confronting mortality and human frailty with raw honesty' Sunday Herald 'Grace is, in a sense, about what happens in between, the major and minor events that occur over the course of any given day. Ullmann's triumph is that even when dealing with the weightiest of these, she has the lightest of touches' Time Out 'Careful, lucid prose . . . insightful and accomplished' Guardian

Newly revised and updated edition. Over 75,000 copies sold! For nearly two decades, Lord, Bless My Child has provided an enduring power of prayer for families. With a template to guide parents in praying for the character of God to be developed in the lives of their children, this book offers 52 prayer concepts that fall in line with God's plan for each child. Included are scriptures, prayers, age-old quotes, and discussion questions for family interaction. There is also a place to journal the prayers-and later, how God has answered. When the child leaves home, many parents give this journal to their child as a gift so they can read the prayer journal entries, and see how God answered their parent's prayers over the years. This is a perfect gift for pastors to use at baby dedications or at baptisms and to give the new expecting mother. Grandparents and parents will enjoy sharing this book as they teach their family to pray. Prayer may indeed be a parent's most important work. May He bless you as you pray for your child!

A wide-ranging exploration of whether or not choosing to procreate can be morally justified—and if so, how. In contemporary Western society, people are more often called upon to justify the choice not to have children than they are to supply reasons for having them. In this book, Christine Overall maintains that the burden of proof should be reversed: that the choice to have children calls for more careful justification and reasoning than the choice not to. Arguing that the choice to have children is not just a prudential or pragmatic decision but one with ethical repercussions, Overall offers a wide-ranging exploration of how we might think systematically and deeply about this fundamental aspect of human life. Writing from a feminist perspective, she also acknowledges the inevitably gendered nature of the decision; the choice has different meanings, implications, and risks for women than it has for men. After considering a series of ethical approaches to procreation, and finding them inadequate or incomplete, Overall offers instead a novel argument. Exploring the nature of the biological parent-child relationship—which is not only genetic but also psychological, physical, intellectual, and moral—she argues that the formation of that relationship is the best possible reason for choosing to have a child.

1865, Nuneaton. For Nessie Carson, life is a constant struggle. When her mother is brutally murdered and her father abandons them, Nessie must keep her family safe and protect her fragile brother, Joseph. Nessie soon attracts the attention of her lecherous landlord, Seth Grimshaw. Taking on a job assisting the local undertaker, she hopes things are looking up. When Joseph¿s health suddenly deteriorates, Nessie meets the newly qualified doctor, Oliver Dorsey. As dashing as he is kind, Nessie is attracted to him though she knows they can never be together. And then her sister Marcie brings shame on the family¿