"Heart Warriors" (A Book Review - & a Birthday Request)

Aloha,

As parents, we love our kids with our whole hearts, but what happens when we're told the newest addition to the family is about to be born with only half a heart?

Amanda Rose Adams and her husband, Jim were given the devastating news that their unborn son, Liam, had a severe case of Congenital Heart Disease, a silent killer that affects more than two million families in the United States.

The young couple had, according to the doctors,  only two options: termination of the five-month-old fetus or hospice care for a child who would probably die before his first birthday.

Amanda and Jim chose instead to fight for life – a quality of life – for Liam, and the family’s immense struggles are shared in the newly released book, Heart Warriors, a Family Faces Congenital Heart Disease.

Written by Amanda, Heart Warriors is an absolute must-read for anyone living with CHD.

But Heart Warriors is also full of hope.

Hope for a little boy with the most amazing blue eyes and a huge, cheeky smile – even though Liam has already suffered through TWELVE heart surgeries – and he is still only eight years old.

As a debut author, Amanda’s passion and love for Liam is so gritty and real that – I’ll be honest – I nearly put the book down within four pages and two reaches (for the Kleenex.)

Those first few pages were tough to read – not because of the writing, which was excellent – but because it was so easy to understand that Liam could have been any of my three sons.

Reading this book also served as a huge reminder: I should never forget how lucky my wife and I are to have healthy, scampering kids – even when the little rug rats chuck the Lucky Charms on the ground for the gazillionth time.

(Trust me; I will never again complain about how long it’s taking No. 1 Son to be seen for his routine checkup at the medical clinic, or moan that No. 2 Son has to take this or that pill.)

Amanda finishes her book with her “Heart Warriors Field Manual.” Stuffed with information on how to find local resources (including volunteer groups), the manual includes a list of supplies for the “battlefield” (i.e. in case of an extended or unplanned trip to the hospital) and even discussion questions for book clubs and “Heartlanders.”

In the short video book trailer, Amanda explains, in part, why she wrote Heart Warriors.

“If this book shows one family that they are not alone, or convinces one nurse how important she really is, or steers one medical student to pediatric cardiology, then it was worth it.”

You can find Heart Warriors via a list of online retailers here.

PS: Here's that birthday request I mentioned in the post title...

Liam turns nine in a couple of weeks (April 28), and with Amanda’s permission, please join me in sending her little Heart Warrior some early birthday greetings :)

Click here to wish young Master Adams a very happy birthday (via Facebook) and THANKS from me – I’m looking up to this kid – even though I’m probably twice his size.

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Amanda Rose Adams

Amanda Rose Adams, M.S., PMP, author of Heart Warriors, One Family Faces Congenital Heart Disease, combines her experience as a communicator with her passion to battle CHD.

Amanda is the president of the Colorado Chapter of the Children’s Heart Foundation, is the founder of the nonprofit Hypoplastic Right Hearts, and has organized dozens of charity events, informational campaigns, and planned or participated in multiple medical education conferences for parents across the U.S.A. and has mentored and supported families facing CHD all over the world.