Let Yourself Be Loved

Elizabeth Leon is the Director of Family Support for Red Bird Ministries. Her book, LET YOURSELF BE LOVED: Big Lessons from a Little Life, explores the heart of a mother carrying a baby to term with the certainty of death. Diagnosed with trisomy 18, John Paul Raphael Leon lived only twenty-eight hours and ten minutes. Elizabeth Leon writes with unflinching honesty about the tsunami of grief and the exquisite agony of choosing to live and love in its wake. With vulnerability and courage, she surrenders to God's plan and learns to embrace the fragility of life and the nearness of death. In the depression that follows her son's death, Elizabeth is forced to examine her own brokenness and confront the holy mystery of John Paul Raphael's short and shining life: in the light of faith, our deepest sufferings are an invitation to joy. Let Yourself Be Loved is a road map to find that joy in the shadow of the valley of death.