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Product Description

"As I’d often told my children, there is nothing of value that may be lost here that will not be given back in heaven. Everything life takes, love restores. Everything. Broken bodies. Broken hearts. Broken dreams. No matter how painful. No matter how devastating, God can transform our greatest sorrow into something good. We simply have to keep beating our wings, keep trusting to discover what it will be. In the meantime, he gives us the hope to keep living."

Redeeming Ruth is the inspirational, true story of an abandoned baby, a devastating diagnosis, and the way God loves broken, hurting people through us, even though we too may be broken and hurt.

When Meadow met her, Ruth was a sixteen-month-old child some church friends were hosting from an orphanage in Uganda. She had cerebral palsy and was so weak she couldn’t lift her head. Although Meadow had always felt a call to adopt, she wasn't sure if she was the right person to raise this special child. But Ruth's infectious and joyful smile prevailed over Meadow and her family--and their whole community. None of their lives would ever be the same.

Part family drama, part travel adventure, and part memoir, Redeeming Ruth is the riveting, against-all-odds story of the most unlikely pairing of a small-town New England family and their adventure in adopting Ruth, an orphan girl from Uganda. Honest, raw, and illuminating, this book explores what happens when we sacrificially reach out and share God's love with others. While the Merrills realized it would be a tough road, they didn’t foresee the challenges and joys that would overwhelm them with hardship, laughter, and a deep and exuberant love, the love of an orphan girl redeemed.

Reviews

"Sure to inspire an outbreak of deepened hearts, larger families, greater love. Isn't this the kind of life Jesus has called us all to?"
- Leslie Leyland Fields, author of Crossing the Waters: Following Jesus through the Storms, the Fish, the Doubt and the Seas

"In all my years of journalism, I've read few accounts so well told, so powerfully written, so deeply moving. Merrill eloquently describes the suffering that comes with love, and the love that blossoms in suffering. Be prepared to have your heart gripped--and strangely warmed."
-Mark Galli, editor in chief of Christianity Today

"Some stories warm your heart; others break it. Redeeming Ruth does both. She was the littlest, the last, and the least of all, but God used this exceptional child to change not only a family, but an entire community--and, Lord willing, you too. God said, 'A little child shall lead them,' and I pray Ruth's story will lead you into a closer, sweeter, and more intimate encounter with Jesus than you dreamed possible. I have the deepest admiration and respect for the Merrill family, and it's with great joy I recommend this book to you!"
–Joni Eareckson Tada, CEO of Joni and Friends International Disability Center

"Meadow Rue Merrill is a great storyteller, and she's gifted us with the story of her beautiful Ruth. You'll be glad you picked it up and won't want to put it down."
–Margot Starbuck, author of The Girl in the Orange Dress

"Honest, painful, and full of hard-won wisdom, Redeeming Ruth tells the story of one family's adoption of a medically fragile daughter and how opening their home and hearts to her would forever affect their notion of who are the blessed ones in our world."
–Jennifer Grant, author of Love You More

"In this riveting, beautifully written book, Meadow Rue Merrill takes us through the story of her daughter Ruth--from her unlikely adoption from Africa to her inclusion in the Merrill family to her growth and beauty as a thriving little girl. It is ultimately a story about family, about faith, and about coming home. I highly recommend this book."
–Amy Julia Becker, author of A Good and Perfect Gift

Meadow Rue Merrill is the Christopher-Award- and Maine-Literary- Award-winning author of the inspirational memoir Redeeming Ruth: Everything Life Takes, Love Restores (Hendrickson Publishers, 2017). A former journalist, she has written for The Boston Globe, the New York Times, Down East magazine, Harvard University, and more while raising six children. She currently writes books for children and adults from a little house in the big woods of midcoast Maine, where she lives with her family and a flock of mischievous chickens.