I read Surprise Package in quiet moments during a week-long visit to my in-laws last month. I’m not a fast reader, but I got through it so quickly not simply because it’s a very slim volume – only 111 pages long with a good number of photos – but because it is brilliantly readable, warm, funny, human and godly. I could hardly put it down. Surprise Package is subtitled ‘When God wrecks our plans’ and is the story of a British Christian couple, Steve and Liz Crowter, and the arrival of their daughter, Heidi, who has Down’s Syndrome. The book has a quirky style, the story taken up alternately by Steve and Liz, from their own points of view, accompanied by passport-style shots of their faces variously stressed, stunned, elated, anguished. The chronological narrative is broken up here and there with ‘future views’ interspersed between chapters, giving the reader a sense of perspective and insight into the ongoing story of the Crowter family. There are also contributions from Heidi’s two brothers, Dan and Tim, and a note from Heidi herself. It was a breath of fresh air to hear such a frank account of Steve and Liz’s feelings and struggles and fears concerning their unexpected daughter, and how they related to God in all of this: a very encouraging read. In short, buy or borrow this book! by Sheppard Way on 11th March 2011
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