Everything in Surprise Child is priceless advice to women and girls facing an unplanned pregnancy. . . Leslie Leyland Fields has written an immensely important book, one that prods your mind, touches your heart, and speaks to your soul. Surprise Child is a small masterpiece that all should read and then read again and then share with others.
--Dave Andrusko, editor of National Right to Life News
Pregnant and unprepared, scared, feeling trapped--if this describes you or someone you know, Surprise Child will powerfully speak to those needs. Author Leslie Leyland Fields, twice surprised in her forties, interweaves her stories with those of others--diverse women whose lives are radically interrupted, gradually transformed. I read it straight through today, could not put it down. With candor and warmth, Leslie talks us through pregnancy, page by page, month by month. She shares how she and the others weathered the fears, the guilt, the dreaded changes: in body and spirit, finances and family life, vocation and dreams and plans. Readers will find no judgments here, only hard-won insights, caring companions. Brief and compelling, Surprise Child features three sections, one for each trimester. Unfolding stories culminate in the epilogue. Unbelievable resources in the back offer more reasons to hope, more ways to cope. This is the book I needed years ago, the one I'll be giving to friends for, as Leslie says: "All of us are here in this book to say, yes, the tunnel winds and twists, but it does open into light."
--Laurie Klein, editor of Rock and Sling
Many women today find an unexpected pregnancy too much to bear . . . If only they could read Surprise Child to discover they are not alone, they are freaks, they are not unworthy. Surprise Child brings "realness" to the issue that not all pregnancies are planned by us but are always planned by God. --Yvette Maher, vice president of Community Impact Outreach, Focus on the Family
After twenty-one years of marriage and two teenagers nearly grown and gone, the last thing my husband and I expected was a "surprise child." I wish I'd had this book as a companion. Leslie Leyland Fields offers a practical yet poignant look at the wrestling, the emotionally tumultuous joy that characterizes an unexpected pregnancy. She points us to the hope that while this child may have been unplanned by us, he or she was not unplanned by God.
--Joanna Weaver, author of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World
