Beyond The Storm Clouds Silent Tears Beyond The Rainbows

Dear Reader, Thank you for taking a few moments, hours or perhaps a day to read my book. Thank you for taking a chance on me and exploring my creative mind. I truly hope that you have enjoyed yourself, found a few laughs, some encouragement, and I also hope to inspire you to follow your own dreams.

In June of 2012, vibrant 16-year-old Leanna Mae Knopik was hospitalized with a rare and sudden cardiac infection. In this unflinching account of her final month of life and the searing sorrow that followed, a grieving mother deepens her relationship with her deceased daughter and—through the grace of God—finds a path to true joy. Beyond the Rainbow describes in candid detail the arduous task of piecing a family back together in the wake of tragedy, and the transformative spiritual awakening that emerges. Not just for the bereaved, all readers will benefit from the author’s journey through searing pain and her ultimate discovery of God’s grace. This memoir offers a model for how family members can move through grief. It presents an honest and complete examination of the coping skills that worked for the author and her family—and the ones that did not. The goal of Beyond the Rainbow is twofold: 1) to shorten the path to healing by offering a roadmap through the early stages of grief, and 2) to broaden the reader’s perspective on loss; with God’s grace, they can and will live a joyful life.

Behind Tear-Stained Eyes is the sequel to the fictional book, Behind the Fake Smile. Both books are based on real-life experiences. Depression can’t hit a moving target. That was a phrase to live by for Chelsea Hansen-Smith. She was full of life and love, and she had big goals, but she was to discover that life doesn’t always turn out the way you planned. It’s the story of how Chelsea finds immense strength when her lifelong dreams uncovered her painful past and reunited her with a new future—a future that forced Chelsea into a life that required her to admit defeat and chart new waters filled with hellfire. This book will penetrate your heart and soul as you experience life through Chelsea’s cracked but hopeful heart.

Rainbows in the Storm is an intimate and raw look into a mother’s heart as she encounters the shocking diagnoses of two of her children with a terminal heart condition. You will journey with her while she desperately tries to find hope and courage among her pain as she faces some very unexpected circumstances. This book reveals that God can heal hearts that are broken physically, emotionally, and spiritually and that he hears our prayers, speaks to people, and still does miracles. The author includes personal journal entries, Bible verses and a vivid depiction of events from her children’s diagnoses through to the heart-transplant of her daughter. However this is no ordinary transplant! There are many complications and shocks encountered. You will walk away with lessons on parenthood, persevering through pain, and inspired to have greater faith in your own hardships.

On the dark side of the rainbow so many may choose evil. On the dark of the rainbow others may choose good. Yet what is good and evil, is it the way we think? Does someone really choose to be good or evil? Come dear reader join us on the Dark Side of the Rainbow, so that you may choose....

Originally published as Fly a Little Higher and now updated and revised to coincide with the film release of Clouds, Laura Sobiech tells the amazing, true story behind the song and the movie. “Okay, Lord, you can have him. But if he must die, I want it to be for something big. I want someone’s life to be changed forever.” This is what Laura Sobiech prayed when she found out her seventeen-year-old son had only one year to live. With this desperate prayer, she released her son to God’s will. At that point, Zach Sobiech was just another teenager battling cancer. When his mother told him to think about writing goodbye letters to family and friends, he decided instead to write songs. One of them, “Clouds,” captured hearts and changed lives, making him an international sensation. This story is a testament to what can happen when you live as if each day might be your last. It’s a story about the human spirit. It shows how God used a dying boy from a small town in Minnesota to touch the hearts of millions—including top executives in the entertainment industry, major music artists, news anchors, talk show hosts, actors, priests and pastors, and schoolchildren across the globe. And above all, it’s an example of the amazing things that happen when someone shares the most precious thing he has—himself. “I’m not a musician; I’m just a filmmaker, and my prayer is that you get an opportunity—both through the reading of this beautiful book and the watching of our film based on it—to experience what I will fail to put into words: the magic and inspiration of Zachary David Sobiech.” —Justin Baldoni, filmmaker and director of Clouds