Dear God, He's Home! by Janet Thompson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

BOOK DESCRIPTION: What do you do when your husband calls and says he's lost his job? How do you handle a husband who has been diagnosed with Parkinson's and is now homebound? Will your routine ever get back to normal now that your loving husband who has been deployed for 12 months is now suddenly back at home? Regardless of the reason he's home, one fact is clear . . . he's home. Dear God, He's Home! is a practical, honest look at how women can deal with a spouse--regardless of the reason--who is forced to become a stay-at-home man.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Janet Thompson, founder and director of About His Work Ministries, is the recognized author of the “Dear God” series and is a speaker on topics relevant to today’s Christian. Janet developed the Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry at Saddleback Church, served as a lay minister for 12 years leading Saddleback’s Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry, and she continues to share the blessings of mentoring by training churches around the world. Dave and Janet have four married children and love being Grammie and Grampa to 11 beautiful grandchildren.

MY THOUGHTS:  Making the transition from what is considered a traditional family set-up--husband working outside the home, wife considering the house her domain--can be very stressful. We have dealt with it at various times in our marriage, and found ourselves again in this position on the mission field. Since our home is the base of operations, gone are the days of seeing him off to work with a kiss each morning and having his dinner ready when he returns in the evening. Defining a new normal has been a challenge, exacerbated by the fact that there just isn't much support out there for wives like me.

So when I saw this new book coming out, I jumped at the chance to get my hands on it. I feel like we have weathered the worst of our storm, but there's always room for improvement. I also hoped this would turn out to be one of those books I could recommend to new missionary wives, so that they don't have to learn the hard way as we did.  It didn't disappoint.

Not only has the author dealt with the situation several times in her life, but she includes the stories of many other marriages who have, for a myriad of reasons. Whether it's health complications, retirement, unemployment, a home office, or some other development that brings your husband home, you're sure to connect with some of the spouses sharing their similar stories.

The book is divided chapters full of examples, practical advice, scripture, a sample prayer, and journaling prompts. Each chapter has several smaller sections packed with wisdom, short enough to do each as a daily devotion.  Although the book is meant to be for the wife, there are parts that can be shared with your husband, such as the sanity tools at the end.

The only complaint I might have is that I had a bit of a hard time keeping up with all the real-life examples.  There were so many, which is good for helping the reader connect to the book and realize she's not the first person to pass through this. But I began to confuse the stories and couples as the book progressed through snippets from these stories with each section.  It's possible that reading a print version of this book would have helped with this, but I had an ebook copy and can't speak as to how the layout affects the ease of reading.

I found the book very thorough, in that it dealt with the emotional, financial, spiritual, and physical aspects of this life change.  It would be helpful to any woman with a stay-at-home husband, especially one who sees the change coming and could use this resource to help herself prepare for that time.

**I received an ARC of this book from netgalley.com, in exchange for my honest review.  The expected publication date of this book is March 5, 2013.