{"id":15002,"date":"2014-07-01T11:57:42","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T17:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mops.org\/2014\/07\/01\/celebrating-the-release-of-atlas-girl\/"},"modified":"2014-07-01T11:57:42","modified_gmt":"2014-07-01T17:57:42","slug":"celebrating-the-release-of-atlas-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/celebrating-the-release-of-atlas-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the Release of Atlas Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hello, Darling. It&#8217;s time for a celebration, don&#8217;t you think? Our own Emily Wierenga is releasing her memoir today, and we couldn&#8217;t think of a better way to share it with you than giving your an excerpt. (Plus, she&#8217;s giving away 3 free copies!) We know Emily best through her beautifully penned words that capture the intimacy of ife&#8217;sintricacies. We love the way she shares her current life with us, and we thought you&#8217;d enjoy a glimpse into the events that have shaped Emily along the way. Anyway, here&#8217;s Emily&#8230;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Friends, this is an excerpt from my new memoir,<a style=\"line-height: 1.6;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.atlasgirlbook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Atlas Girl: Finding Home in the Last Place I Thought to Look<\/em><\/a>, releasing July 1<sup>st<\/sup>through Baker Books.<strong style=\"line-height: 1.6;\">I am excited to give away THREE copies today.Just leave a comment below to win.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZirKrbreo9Q\" width=\"650\" height=\"365\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Excerpt<\/h3>\n<p>The smell of my hands reminds me of Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Of mangoes mashed, of Mum feeding me, and my brother too, and now, I\u2019m feeding her, and she doesn\u2019t open her mouth when I ask her to.<\/p>\n<p>The sky is pretty, like Mum\u2019s pink silk scarf, the one hanging in her closet, and the windows are dirty, maybe I\u2019ll clean them today. Mum thinks today is Sunday\u2014funny, because yesterday was Sunday too, she thought\u2014\u201cand there\u2019s church and I will need to take my blue purse with my Bible and where are my glasses?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is what she would normally say, but suddenly she can\u2019t speak, kind of like me until the age of four because we moved so much, and Dad says I just watched people. Just stood at the fence in Congo and watched our neighbors.<\/p>\n<p>Mum is trying to ask me something, but her mouth won\u2019t work. I busy myself with the spoon and the mashed fruit. I might as well be buying baby food, for the way Mum can\u2019t chew. I don\u2019t have children of my own and this is something Trent wants, and \u201cMaybe one day\u201d I tell him.<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t use to want children at all, and now I\u2019m bathing Mum, who\u2019s had brain cancer for five years, and I\u2019m changing her and cutting her toenails and my womb is too full of grief and wonder to make room for a baby.<\/p>\n<p>Funny how the two go together, grief and wonder, kind of like when Jesus died and his murderers realized he was God even as the sky tore. The sky is bleeding red, and in a month it will blaze cerulean with late August heat. The fields of corn and canola misting as combines whirr and the air, thick with the meaty smell of harvest.<\/p>\n<p>And Mum\u2019s still fumbling for words, and when she does talk she has a British accent but now she has nothing and I wish, I wish she knew how much I loved her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBigger,\u201d Mum says finally, and I know she\u2019s trying to say, \u201cI love you bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love you biggest,\u201d I tell her, wiping drool and mango from her chin with a cloth and it\u2019s not supposed to be this way.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m helping her stand, now, and she\u2019s light. She hasn\u2019t been this small since Africa, where she knit afghans with local women while Dad taught blind men how to plant and Keith and I played in the mud, him in his cloth diaper and me in my underwear.<\/p>\n<p>I read somewhere that stress can trigger brain tumors. Perhaps Mum\u2019s grew when she found Nanny in the bathtub, dead. Or maybe this tumor is my fault. Maybe it\u2019s from when I got anorexia, Mum holding me at night when she thought I was asleep and her crying. Or maybe it\u2019s from all of those pots and pans flying across the room when she and I would fight. Or maybe it\u2019s from when I left the house at 18 and didn\u2019t look back. Mum\u2019s diaper is poking out of her stretchy pants, the ones she always wears because they\u2019re easiest to pull up if she\u2019s unconscious, and there\u2019s someone at the door and I\u2019m helping her across the floor towards her blue recliner.<\/p>\n<p>And Mum is asleep in her chair even before I answer the door. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.atlasgirlbook.com\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-3522\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emilywierenga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/268386_Wierenga_WB.jpg\" alt=\"268386_Wierenga_WB\" width=\"700\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>From the back cover<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cDisillusioned and yearning for freedom, Emily Wierenga left home at age eighteen with no intention of ever returning. Broken down by organized religion, a childhood battle with anorexia, and her parents\u2019 rigidity, she set out to find God somewhere else\u2013anywhere else. Her travels took her across Canada, Central America, the United States, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. She had no idea that her faith was waiting for her the whole time\u2013in the place she least expected it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPoignant and passionate, <em>Atlas Girl<\/em> is a very personal story of a universal yearning for home and the assurance that we are known, forgiven, and beloved. Readers will find in this memoir a true description of living faith as a two-way pursuit in a world fraught with distraction. Anyone who wrestles with the brokenness we find in the world will love this emotional journey into the arms of the God who heals all wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Click <a href=\"http:\/\/assets.bakerpublishinggroup.com\/processed\/book-resources\/files\/Excerpt_9780801016561.pdf?1399554412\">HERE<\/a> for Chapters 1 and 2. <\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.atlasgirlbook.com\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3523\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emilywierenga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/271486_Wierenga_WB.jpg\" alt=\"271486_Wierenga_WB\" width=\"700\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a> <strong><em>I&#8217;m also giving away a FREE e-book<\/em><\/strong><em> to anyone who orders Atlas Girl. Just order<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Atlas-Girl-Finding-Place-Thought\/dp\/0801016568\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1396877968&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=atlas+girl\"><em> HERE<\/em><\/a><em>, and then head<a href=\"http:\/\/emilywierenga.us7.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=65c60dfe8ddb062360ae7566a&amp;id=b71b359537\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> HERE<\/a> to receive <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.emilywierenga.com\/books\/house-god-built\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A House That God Built: 7 Essentials to Writing Inspirational Memoir<\/a> &#8212;<em> an absolutely FREE e-book co-authored by myself and editor\/memoir teacher Mick Silva.<\/em> <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelulutree.com\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3707\" src=\"http:\/\/www.emilywierenga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Atlas-Girl_700x175_2.jpg\" alt=\"Atlas Girl_700x175_2\" width=\"700\" height=\"175\" \/><\/a><\/em> ALL proceeds from Atlas Girl will go towards a non-profit founded by TBM&#8217;s Joy Forney and myself, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelulutree.com\/\">The Lulu Tree. <\/a>The Lulu Tree is dedicated to preventing tomorrow\u2019s orphans by equipping today\u2019s mothers. It is a grassroots organization bringing healing and hope to women and children in the slums of Uganda through the arts, community, and the gospel.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Emily T. Wierenga is an award-winning journalist, blogger, commissioned artist and columnist, as well as the author of five books including the memoir<a href=\"http:\/\/www.atlasgirlbook.com\/\">Atlas Girl: Finding Home in the Last Place I Thought to Look<\/a>(Baker Books). She lives in Alberta, Canada with her husband and two sons. For more info, please visit<a href=\"http:\/\/www.emilywierenga.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">emilywierenga.com<\/a>. Find her on<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/emily_wierenga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>or<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/emilytwierenga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div><iframe id=\"easyXDM_CPTR_default3944_provider\" style=\"width: 430px; height: 667px; margin: 0px auto; display: block;\" src=\"&quot;http:\/\/widget.rafflecopter.com\/cptr.html?xdm_e=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mops.org&lt;\/p\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\"><\/iframe><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello, Darling. It&#8217;s time for a celebration, don&#8217;t you think? Our own Emily Wierenga is releasing her memoir today, and we couldn&#8217;t think of a better way to share it with you than giving your an excerpt. (Plus, she&#8217;s giving away 3 free copies!) We know Emily best through her beautifully penned words that capture [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":13002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,102],"tags":[205,170,203,101,181],"class_list":["post-15002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-relationships","tag-books","tag-emily","tag-inspire","tag-parenting","tag-reality"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}