Jonny and Joanna, thank you for writing this book! Thank you for sharing your life with us. Thank you for your authenticity, and for allowing us to walk with you through the loss of your dear daughter, Edith. As a pastor and counsellor, I highly recommend this book. If you have been through loss and you are looking for help, Silent Cries will feel more like a compassionate friend than a book. If you want to understand the grief of losing a child, Silent Cries will immediately welcome you into Jonny and Joanna's story. You will feel a part of the family journeying with this couple. Above all, you will be more convinced of the deep need that we all have to know that Jesus has suffered and understands us today. -- Dr Tim Lane * Founder Institute for Pastoral Care and Tim Lane & Associates, Peachtree City, Georgia; author of Unstuck *
In this refreshingly honest and well-written account of the loss of their precious daughter, Jonny and Joanna Ivey allow us to journey alongside of them on their path of loss, grief, healing and hope. Rather than shying away from the deep questions of faith that often taunt us in our darkest days of grief, they allow us to glean from the truths they've discovered as Christ has walked with them through it. Whether you have experienced the loss of a child or have simply known the crushing weight of grief, you will find the pages of this book to be a comfort and an encouragement as you learn to walk with Christ on the path where joy and sorrow meet. -- Sarah Walton * Author of Hope When It Hurts and Together Through the Storms *
Most books don't make me cry, but this rare and wrenching meditation on the grief of child-loss did. The heartache of losing a baby is still a taboo subject for many. Every grieving parent - and all who love and comfort them - will instantly empathize with Joanna and Jonny's Jesus-saturated lament -- Marcus Honeysett * Director of Living Leadership *
Silent Cries flows from a harrowing experience of personal tragedy. Jonny and Joanna Ivey are honest about the cacophony of emotions associated with grief. At the same time we see their darkness illuminated by the comforts found in Scripture as they affirm that even in the darkness Jesus is enough. Sooner or later we all have to walk dark paths. This book helps us to face such times with courage and confidence. It is highly recommended. -- Paul and Edrie Mallard * [Paul] Senior Minister at Widcombe Baptist Bath and author of Invest Your Suffering and Invest Your Disappointment *
Losing a baby is a deep yet often hidden tragedy. The pain can overwhelm and the questions feel endless. There are no easy answers in the pages of this book, but in meeting a family who have lost, we all gain precious companions for our personal journeys of grief - be that after losing a child ourselves or from loving someone who has done. A compelling read, this is raw and real - at times tears may flow - but every chapter is infused with beautiful hope. Hope not in a quick fix, but in a precious Saviour whose comforting and sustaining hand never fails. -- Helen Thorne * Director of Training and Resources at Biblical Counselling UK *
Silent Cries has all the beauty of a well-crafted memoir-detail-driven, honest, engaging, compelling, inviting, vulnerable-with all the benefits of a reliable non-fiction resource on grief-biblical, truth-filled, accessible, comforting and encouraging. Jonny and Joanna courageously welcome readers into their story of sorrow with the best sort of hospitality, skillfullly demonstrating vulnerability and honesty in a way that moves beyond reflection or catharsis to offer companionship, hope and help for those who find themselves grappling with the trauma of stillbirth and grieving a child whose cries they long to hear. This is the book I wish I had had to hand for my dearest friend when her precious baby girl was born asleep last year, and it is undoubtedly a resource I will keep on hand and recommend for couples walking this tragic road, in order that though paved with pain, the way might be lit with the character of God and the hope of the gospel. -- Abbey Wedgeworth * Author, Held: 31 Biblical Reflections on the Comfort and Care of God in the Sorrow of Miscarriage *
Moving, honest, beautifully written. Fresh insights into the mystery of baby loss seen through the eyes of Christian faith. Heartbreaking but hopeful. -- Professor John Wyatt * Paediatrician, medical ethicist and author of Matters of Life and Death and Dying Well *
Both heartbreaking and hope-bringing, Silent Cries will leave you rejoicing in the unshakeable hope of Christ. The Iveys relay their story in such a way that you'll eagerly turn the pages until it is done. I'm excited for the witness this book will be to Jesus, and pray it gets into the hands of many grieving parents, both believers and unbelievers alike. -- Kristen Wetherell * Co-author of Hope When It Hurts and author of Fight Your Fears *
Beautifully and brilliantly written, Silent Cries tells the story of the shocking death in utero of baby Edith Joy Adeah, and her parents' subsequent journey through all that follows-the traumatic stillbirth, the heart-wrenching farewell, the sad burial, and the ongoing complexity of grief thereafter. Jonny and Joanna, Edith's parents, courageously invite us into their vulnerable process of grappling with their daughter's death. Because of a similar experience, I cried through most of this book, but I was also moved to a renewed hope, as the gospel of Jesus Christ was so wonderfully applied in the face of death, chapter after chapter. But this is not just a book for parents who have lost a baby; it is also a book for any church that has lost a baby. "If one member suffers, all suffer together" (1 Cor. 12:26). Silent Cries will help us all to grieve better when a baby in our church dies, and to hope stronger and longer for that day when Jesus Christ will return to raise the dead, and bring his chosen ones into a new creation where death will be no more. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. -- Dr Jonathan Gibson * Associate Professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania: Author of The Moon Is Always Round *
