Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor
Page 28
One of my favorite verses is 2 Corinthians 12:9: “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
If you are a mom or dad of a struggling child, I pray God’s grace and peace would saturate every moment you spend with your son or daughter. That His strength would prevail in weakness.
There is an overwhelming amount of information about the autism spectrum online. If you are searching for more information or resources for your child, I recommend starting with these two websites:
www.autismspeaks.org
www.myasdf.org
To research this book, I spent a week touring England and fell in love with the English countryside and all the old manor homes, the wisteria growing on gray stone walls, the rambling lanes through brilliant yellow fields, and all the kind people who collaborated to help me with directions and bus schedules and finding a proper pot of English tea. I loved all the history in Oxford and was completely enchanted by the quaint villages and elegant gardens in the Cotswolds—everywhere I turned, I could see the beauty that inspired Libby’s butterflies.
If you’d like to send me an e-mail or read more about my story, please visit my website at www.melaniedobson.com. I will have book club questions and pictures from my trip here as well.
Thank you for taking this journey with me.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Long before the concept for this story began to develop, a host of people surrounded my husband and me with prayers and insight for our family’s unique journey. Some people simply encouraged us while other professionals and friends educated us on the challenges of sensory processing. When a parent risks sharing his or her story of successes and failures, it gives others the strength to be vulnerable—and in that vulnerability, to find hope and healing.
In my own questions and doubts, as I begged God for wisdom in my life, Libby’s story began to burn inside me. I’m grateful for each person who helped me put it onto paper.
Thank you first of all to my agent Natasha Kern for continuing to challenge, inspire, and encourage me as I wrote this story. You are an amazing mom and a blessing to each one of your clients.
Thank you to two other amazing moms—my editors Beth Adams and Jenny Baumgartner—for helping me weave together this novel. And to a wonderful group of moms who read my first drafts and gave me feedback as I wrote what I hoped would be a redemptive story—Janet Ainsworth, Kimberly Felton, Michele Heath, Ann Menke, and Jodi Stilp. I feel so blessed to have each one of you as a friend! Thank you for sharing your stories as you read mine.
To everyone who helped me plan or hosted me on my “whistle-stop” tour of England—a huge thank-you to Caroline Watts, Dominic Done, Kerstin Jeapes at Wycliffe Hall, and Bridget Baxter at The Old House in Calmsden, who went out of her way to help me find exactly what I needed in the Cotswolds. Paul and Sheila Herbert for your help before I left the States and then for traveling down to the Cotswolds to take me out for “bubble and squeak.” It was such a pleasure to spend time with both of you. And Sheila—I so appreciate your answering my many “English” questions.
A special thanks to Evelyn Hamilton, who spent an entire day showing me the Cotswolds. Evelyn helped shape this book by graciously sharing her life and stories about growing up in a manor home in the 1950s and then becoming a special education teacher in England. We ended our day at Bibury Court, ordering a pot of tea along the River Coln. She said she thought Ladenbrooke should be set in this village, and she was exactly right!
Thank you to the entire staff at Howard Books including Becky Nesbitt, Amanda Desmastus, Chris McCarthy, Brandi Lewis, and Bruce Gore for designing the gorgeous cover to depict Ladenbrooke Manor. Shannon Geddes-Keene for your help understanding the process of art restoration, Jonathan Kiernan for sharing your memories about growing up in a village along England’s coast, and occupational therapist extraordinaire Melissa Goodwin for educating me about the autism spectrum. Jodi Stilp for volunteering to photograph my dad and me for the dedication—it’s a picture I will treasure for life. And to the ladies in my writer’s group—Nicole Miller, Leslie Gould, Dawn Shipman, and Kelly Chang—thank you for all your encouragement and insight as I wrote this story.
Dobby and Carolyn Dobson—thank you for traveling across the country to help care for my family while I was in England. I am incredibly blessed to have you as my dad- and mom-in-law. To my parents, Jim and Lyn Beroth, for your consistent love and support and continuing to cheer me on as I pursue the dreams God has placed in my heart. Love you so much . . .
To my husband, Jon, and our daughters, Karlyn and Kinzel, for pouring yourself into every new book alongside me. I’m so grateful for each of your prayers and encouragement and the sacrifices you made so I could put this story about Libby onto paper.
And to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who remains the same yesterday and today and forever. I’m confident that He is weaving together a beautiful story in the lives of all who love Him—a story of hope, redemption, and ultimately transformation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photograph © Jodi Stilp Photography
Melanie Dobson is the award-winning author of thirteen historical romance, suspense, and contemporary novels. Two of her novels won Carol Awards in 2011, and Love Finds You in Liberty, Indiana won Best Novel of Indiana in 2010. Melanie lives with her husband Jon and two daughters near Portland, Oregon. Visit her online at MelanieDobson.com.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Melanie Dobson
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Howard Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Howard Books trade paperback edition June 2015
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Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Interior design by Davina Mock-Maniscalco
Interior map by Jeffrey Ward
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dobson, Melanie B.
Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor / Melanie Dobson.—First Howard Books trade paperback edition.
pages; cm
1. Family secrets—Fiction.
2. England—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3604.O25S53 2015
813'.6—dc23
201403968
ISBN 978-1-4767-4614-2
ISBN 978-1-4767-4615-9 (ebook)
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Melanie Dobson, Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor