God is in the details

About this book

What does it look like to find God when life begins in the hardest place?Stephanie Batts' story did not start gently. Born into trauma and affected by fetal alcohol syndrome, she was removed from her biological family as a small child, moved through foster care, and eventually adopted. Years of longing, anger, and confusion followed, along with the questions so many survivors quietly carry: Where was God? Why did this happen to me? Can I ever truly forgive?In God Is in the Details, Stephanie tells her story with raw honesty and quiet courage. She takes you from a broken childhood and the bullying of her teen years to the search for the family she lost, and then through the moments that shaped her: meeting a soldier home on leave from Iraq, building a blended family, facing betrayal inside her own church community, and fighting through serious health battles.This is not a polished story of perfect faith. Stephanie admits her anger, her mistakes, and the seasons when she struggled to believe she was seen, and that is exactly why her story rings true. Page after page, she reveals that God was present in the small details all along: a friendship at just the right time, a word of encouragement, a door that opened, a hand that held hers when she could not stand on her own.Along the way, you will see how faith held on in the middle of the storm, how forgiveness became a long road rather than a single moment, and how God sent a circle of sisters in Christ who understood her pain and walked with her toward healing. You will come away with fresh hope that your past does not have the final word, and the assurance that you are never as alone as you feel.Dedicated to every woman searching for God's presence in life's hardest moments, this book is for women of faith, survivors of childhood trauma, adoptees and foster-care alumni, and church small groups and book clubs looking for an honest conversation about healing.Content note: this memoir includes frank discussion of childhood sexual abuse, family trauma, and illness. Reader discretion is advised. God is writing a beautiful story with your life too.