LONGWOOD, FL-When the going gets tough, the tough get going. That was a lesson Carolyn Mannila Harper swore by when she stood against all who stood against her: the medical experts who told her to abandon her young son to a state mental institution, the educational experts who could never find a program to help him, and even the religious experts who challenged her walk with God. Harper's book, Why Didn't Anybody Ever Tell Me About This! A Mother's Search for a Living God (paperback, 1-60034-904-8; hardcover, 1-60034-905-6), is a no-nonsense account of the unique challenges in her life, which include her firm, unyielding stand against her own epileptic son and his seizures, drug reactions, and violent behaviors.
Harper, a full-blooded Scandinavian, credits her Finnish "sisu" "the inner strength to press on" as the force that prevented her from throwing in the towel on a son in desperate need of her help. Says Harper, "I think the most important thing about me is I am not a quitter, and neither was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is actually alive, and He has not changed since He walked on earth 2,000 years ago, and [He] is available to those who seek Him. Some people keep Jesus in the past, back in the Bible stories of long ago. I believe these stories were written to give us faith for today's problems and challenges. We need the real, living Jesus now."
With God's support, Harper raised a child the medical experts warned her would be impossible to raise. Now 42, he lives with her at home and is a testament to the fact that the medical experts aren't always the last authority on all things medical. "I have proven them wrong," says Harper.
Xulon Press, a part of Salem Communications Corporation, is the world's largest Christian publisher, with more than 3,900 titles published to date. Retailers may order Why Didn't Anybody Ever Tell Me About This! through Ingram Book Company and/or Spring Arbor Book Distributors. Salem Communications is the country's leading Christian communications company with interests in radio, Internet, and magazine publishing.
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2007