Where is God? When Hope Hurts By Carol Urton

Abandoned at age two by her father, Carol was thrust into a life of unrelenting sexual abuse and child pornography when her mother remarried a deacon in their local church. After nine years, she brought the dark family secret into light, only to be silenced and sent away to live with her grandparents. At age 14, Carol began her journey of trying to find peace among the shattered pieces of her life. After years of running from the truth, she had to face her past. Carol began to try and answer her biggest question...”Where is God? When Hope Hurts.” She knew she had to make a choice and to choose life, she had to choose to be free. She ultimately found freedom from the debilitating hurts of her childhood and adult life through the healing process of forgiveness, salvation and above all HOPE in a loving God who never leaves and never forsakes.   You MUST pick up a copy http://www.findinghopeministries.com/ Carol Urton is a national lecturer and has been invited to be a speaker and numerous conferences, workshops, retreats and conventions.  She is a published author of numerous articles and short stories and has been a featured guest on several radio and television programs.  Her long awaited book, "Where is God? When Hope Hurts" will be available in January 2013. Carol is an accomplished speaker whose goal is to inspire people to achieve their full potential despite hardships in life. She is passionate about issues relating to childhood abuse and neglect. Carol is also known nationally for her work with Web Wise Kids, speaking on the topic of Internet safety helping youth and adults understand how to have a safe and positive experience while online, social networking and using cell phones. She joined Web Wise Kids, a national non-profit organization dedicated to “Empowering Today’s Youth to Make Wise Choices Online” in November of 2008 and served as the Vice-President of Training and Project Management until May of 2011. Currently, Carol is a Major Gifts Officer for the Orange County Rescue Mission and works with major donors, corporations and foundations.  OCRM is a comprehensive program that helps homeless men, women and families become self sufficient by giving them a hand up not a hand out. Ms. Urton graduated in 2004 from California State University-Bakersfield with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology.   She worked in the LA County school system for five years in their Primary Intervention Program serving children with adjustment difficulties in grades K-3.  In 1994, she founded “Choose to Be Free” a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the needs of the church community in relation to child abuse and neglect.  She also served as President of the Antelope Valley Child Abuse Prevention Council for two years. Carol has worked in many capacities of the corporate sector specifically related to mortgage insurance and operations for the past 25 years.  She has served as the Director of Operations and Assistant Vice-President of Operations for two major corporations.  Carol also served as President of the Antelope Valley Chapter of the National Association of Professional Mortgage Women. Carol is active in the following organizations: Board of Directors, Orange County Crime Stoppers Sargent at Arms, Cutting Edge Professionals Toastmasters Member, Mission Viejo Christian Church Member, Orange County Chapter, 100 Women Making a Difference Carol is married and resides in Southern California with her husband David Wow! This book was an incredibly emotional read for me. There are so many places in this book where I wanted to pick up the phone and call Carol. I cried so hard many times reading this book, but I also cheered the loudest for Carol. What I wouldn't give to live near her in California; I'm sure we'd become best friends! Carol has learned one of the hardest things in life how to forgive and move on from past hurts. After all she has endured (more than most of us; I'm sure) she has become an incredibly strong women. I really learned a lot from this book: that our past is just that and we need to forgive those who hurt us and move forward and live the life God wants us to live. "Plan the action and not the result." Forgiveness is a step of action. We can all learn much from Carol. In no way did she ever say any of this "moving on" was easy nor did she sugar coat what she went through even though in the end she came out on top and has a very good life now. I give this book 5 stars and I highly recommend this book to everyone. I was given a copy of this book as a gift. I had to share it with all of you wonderful blog readers.