Life is not a straight line. There are side roads, changes, and interruptions that you neither foresee nor anticipate. You may face a job loss, failed relationship, health crisis, or even a virus that strikes and changes everything. When these things happen, we are not just taken out of our comfort zone, but plunged into an unknown, without a plan or direction.

Hindsight: the ability to understand a situation only after it has happened.

While this is true of all things, I have found it especially true when looking back at the season that I raised two daughters while working, traveling, and juggling life. That task was both the most incredible and challenging job of the many I held. The idea to write this book came from me reflecting on the years of my girls growing up and listening to other moms experience the same fears and frustrations today that I did back then.

Living a life of grace is very often misinterpreted. Some believe it’s an indicator of weakness. In the eyes of many, extending the truest form of grace, which is forgiveness, means giving up. Others believe grace is automatic and easy to show. Quite the contrary—living a life of grace takes an enormous amount of strength and a boatload of tenacity.

It seems that every conversation I find myself in has this sentiment as part of the discussion: “It’s been a crazy year hasn’t it?”

We seem to be looking at one another with disbelief, uncertainty, and discomfort. What do we do when we meet? What can we say? Are we wearing masks, shaking hands, bumping elbows? Do we skate around the issues of injustice, destruction, hopelessness, and mankind divided, seemingly forced to take sides? Even saying “mankind” is currently taking a side. Are we mumbling through conversations because there is fear on every front—fear of misunderstanding or even harm?

Recently, the U.S. State Department released its current assessment of human trafficking entitled “2019 Trafficking in Persons Report.” I found the statics to be horrifying as I glanced through the findings, reminding myself they represent real individuals, lives caught in a world of degradation.