“In his thoughtful and personable Letters to My Unborn Children, Shawn fulfills the silent prayer of every bereaved parent: to discover the strength, courage and hope within ourselves that allows us to carry on in a way that honors the children we lost.”
David Fleming, ESPN
Author of Noah’s Rainbow: A Father’s Emotional Journey from the Death of His Son to the Birth of His Daughter
“Although this book is written for anyone whose heart has been devastated by the loss of a pregnancy, I loved hearing Shawn’s perspective as a grieving father. Shawn’s handling of grief in his book is both skillful and thoughtful because he refuses to further injure … or insult … his readers with simplistic solutions to very painful and complex questions. I recommend this book for people who are tired of feeling alone in their suffering.”
Rev. Dr. Alex Gee, Fountain of Life Church, Madison WI
Author of When God Lets You Down, and fellow grieving father of two prematurely born daughters
“Letters to My Unborn Children is a moving account of one father’s journey through the pain of repeated miscarriage losses. Fathers’ grief, in the case of miscarriage, often goes unnoticed or unacknowledged, which can add to the pain these men feel. Shawn writes eloquently of this pain, and of his love for his children, both born and unborn. In this heartfelt account, we see the reality of paternal grief as well as the value of having a spiritual core when confronting the unimaginable experience of multiple miscarriages.”
Dr. Kathleen Gilbert, Indiana University
Co-author of Coping With Infant or Fetal Loss: The Couple’s Healing Process
“Intelligent, probing, and compassionate, Letters to My Unborn Children candidly conveys one man’s theological reasoning in the face of three pregnancy losses and subsequent pregnancies.”
Dr. Linda Layne, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Author of Motherhood Lost: A Feminist Account of Pregnancy Loss in America and co-producer of Motherhood Lost: Conversations
“Letters to My Unborn Children eloquently conveys Shawn’s passage from raw grief to acceptance and hope following the multiple miscarriages that he and his wife experienced. Shawn shares how his faith and interactions with others throughout his life shaped his reactions to loss and made him who he is today. Insightful, courageous, and sensitive, this is a superb resource for families living through the pain of miscarriage.”
Tim Nelson, A Place to Remember (http://www.aplacetoremember.com/)
Author of A Guide for Fathers: When Your Baby Dies
“We have rituals, traditions and experience to help us know what to do and how to feel when the life of someone we love ends, even if in youth. But we know much less about what to do and how to feel when a life we have only begun to love ends just as it is starting. Letters to My Unborn Children can help. Shawn weaves together wise and compassionate words from writers, song writers and Scripture with his own honest probings. His deeply felt and thought-filled reflections on the heartbreak of miscarriage cast comfort and light on the pain of any loss.”
Dr. Daniel Taylor, Bethel University
Author of The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian and the Risk of Commitment
“Letters to My Unborn Children is a powerful, starkly honest, and deeply moving account of what happens when darkest grief is acknowledged and explored rather than denied and shunned. Shawn names the deeper, more invisible losses of his specific grief. His insights offer both comfort and encouragement that invite others to acknowledge their own stories of loss. A powerful read.”
Ruth E. Van Reken
Author of Letters Never Sent: A Global Nomad’s Journey from Hurt to Healing and co-founder of Families in Global Transition (http://www.figt.org/)
“Letters to My Unborn Children is moving, eloquent, deeply Christian, and unfailingly honest. Parents who have suffered through miscarriage will find that it gives words to their thoughts and feelings. Indeed, it gives words to the thoughts and feelings of anyone who has suffered the death of someone they loved.”
Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University
Author of Lament for a Son