SarahKiekover

This book keeps getting more and more interesting, and now is pulling me in so that it's hard to put it down.  Now Natalia and Brian's stories have crossed paths and they meet at a Christian school that Brian already goes to and that Natalia is enrolling in.  Natalia and Maureen come to it one day to get everything ready for the beginning of the school year, and Brian is already there helping the principal with work that needs to be done.  Brian offers to take Natalia on a tour, and even though she is reluctant at first because she doesn't want to start becoming friends with and having feelings for a boy, Natalia agrees.  In the meantime, Maureen has to fill out a bunch of paperwork for the school.  When they had first arrived at the school, the principal talked about how they need a Spanish teacher still and no one had been found yet to do the job.  Natalia sees this as an opportunity and divine appointment that God arranged, because Maureen had been having difficulty finding a job, and was taking the divorce with Natalia's father really hard.  Maureen knows Spanish and used to be a Sunday school teacher, so she would be perfect for the job, but she refuses.  Although, Natalia and the Principal are hopeful and will pray that she will change her mind.  The author of this book did a very good job of making the reader have strong feelings about the story and its characters, because I already have been getting frustrated with Maureen and her attitude and actions.  She is so negative and is always feeling sorry for herself, and doesn't know a good thing when it drops right in front of her face.  On the other hand, I really like Natalia and her attitude, as well as Maureen's step-brother and Brian.  I like this book better and better as I get farther into it.

I am a little farther in my book now and Natalia has moved to the United States with Maureen, and she has had a rude awakening to the many cultural differences.  She is also used to being spoiled a little bit, and having a maid to clean for her, and now she will need to get used to a smaller house and cleaning on her own, and not going out much.  The book also has been switching back and forth between Natalia's story and a pastor's kid named Brian.  He lives in the United States and has troubles of his own.  He just got out of school for the summer and is working on remodeling a mansion that is ironically being sold to the parents of the very boy that Brian needs a break from.  This other boy seems to have everything, including the good looks and the girls, but he is not a very nice person and not a good influence for Brian.  He will have to find a way to make it work and be led by God to possibly get this other boy saved.  I am still enjoying this book so far and look forward to what is going to happen later in the story.

Where I am now in the story, the latest woman that Natalia's father has hurt, Maureen, has decided to move back to her home in Tampa, Florida.  Maureen is the one wife Natalia's father has had that actually is more of a mother to her, and who she feels close to.  She has helped Natalia build her relationship with God, and make her faith stronger.  Natalia is hanging out with one of her friends talking about it when she realizes that she needs to go to Florida with Maureen.  The environment she is currently in is not healthy for her, especially as a baby Christian, and going with the one person who really cares about her is the best thing for her.  She talks to her father about it and he is all for it, and now I am stopped where she is talking to her birth mother, Anita, who isn't really in the picture because of her work.  I am really liking this book.  It is very interesting and so far has been having great messages about being led by God and doing what He wants you to do.  It is also very real.  Natalia's situation is sadly the case for many other people today, and this book shows her making her way out of it with God's help and the guidance of a good spiritual leader.

I have just started reading the book Right Where I Belong, by Krista McGee, and I think I'm really going to like it.  It is starting out about a teenage girl named Natalia, who lives in Spain with her father.  He has not seemed to be very good at falling in love with one woman and staying with her for very long.  He has so far been in three different marriages and divorced all three women for petty, ridiculous reasons.  Natalia does not like it one bit, and tries to confront him about it, but still tries to listen to God and respect her father.  I really like how the author is a Christian and included God and praying in her story, because it is important.  Writing stories like this is a great way to share our faith and get people saved through books.  Though most of the time the stories people are interested in are fiction, parts of them can include real and true things, and that is what speaks to the reader.  I really appreciate being able to read a book that has actual meaningful thoughts about love, and how God sees it, and not just the stupid pointless romances that don't last and are entirely lustful and worldly. God needs to be involved in every decision we make, including the ones involving love and the people we get into relationships with.  I have a feeling that this book is going to do a good job of showing that.

I am still reading The Fault in Our Stars, and am still really enjoying it.  Since the last time I've read, Hazel went to Augustus's house to watch the movie that he had been telling her about, and he gave her a book to start reading.  He told Hazel kind of about his life and what happened to him, then asked her what her story was.  She started to tell him her "cancer story" and he stopped her and wanted to know her real story, like her hobbies and passions.  This made her realize that she really had only been focusing on what the cancer has transformed her into, and was not really thinking about the good things in life.  She really likes Augustus, and he likes her and wants to see her again the next day, but she tells him she'll call him when she finishes the book he gave her.  She was a little skeptical about the book at first and didn't think she would really enjoy it, but ended up reading it in one night and getting the whole series to read.  Being with Augustus Waters has already started to change Hazel for the better and make her think about the beauty of life and not just wallow in her self pity, and think how bad she has it, even though she kind of has good reason to.  I think this friendship, and possibly more than that later on, will help Hazel to live life to the fullest and spend as much of it as she has left being happy.

I just started this book yesterday, and it is already getting difficult to put down.  Many of my friends have read it and really enjoyed it, and there is now a movie out about it, so I am reading the book before we see the movie.  It is narrated by the main character, sixteen or seventeen-year-old Hazel Grace.  She has been diagnosed with lung cancer and has to carry around an oxygen tank wherever she goes.  Her mother sends her to a Support Group every Wednesday because she thinks Hazel is depressed, and Hazel hates it.  On one particular day that she is especially dreading going, her mother still has her go and there is a very attractive boy there named Augustus Waters.  Hazel first notices him when she is getting some lemonade and he won't stop staring at her.  During the meeting she finds out that he had previously had osteosarcoma, but was there for a friend.  Afterward, Hazel and Augustus talk and Augustus gets her to agree to go see a movie with him.  This is where I left off, and I can't wait to pick it up again and read on.  It is a very good book, and gives the reader good perspective as to what it's like to be one of the many teenagers who have these terminal diseases and don't get to live normal lives.

I'm about half way through my book, Heaven is for Real, and it seems to be moving a little slower now because of many filler details.  The doctors found out what was wrong and found the right treatment, so Colton is now out of the hospital and home with his family for good.  Although, now that the illness and hospital visits are over, the bills are catching up to the Burpo family.  Sonja, Colton's mother, counted up all the money they owed and was not sure how to pay it all.  Then, all of a sudden money started coming in from friends and family, providing enough to pay for every bill almost to the dollar.  It was definitely a God thing.  I am still enjoying this book, even with its now slower pace.

I am a few more chapters into my book, Heaven is for Real, and it is pulling me in even more.  I am now in the part of the book that is getting into the details of what led up to Colton's position in the hospital.  The family had gone on a little trip as a kind of celebration to the end of the tragedies that had seemed to hit them one after the other.  Although, while they were there, Colton got what seemed like a nasty flu virus and threw up constantly for multiple nights straight.  When it didn't stop, his parents decided to take him to the hospital and they got bad news.  I had to stop reading right after they took a test that was supposed to tell them what was really wrong with Colton, and it doesn't look good.  I do not particularly like or agree with some of the things that the narrator says about God, though.  It seems like he has a few wrong ideas about God and is also making Him seem sort of like the "bad guy" and is putting the blame of Colton's situation on Him.  Other than that, I am still really enjoying the book.

I am currently reading the book Heaven is for Real, by Todd Burpo, and I am really enjoying it so far.  It is about a family going through a few tough times, and just when they think it's over and they can relax, the four-year-old son, Colton, comes close to dying.  The book goes back and forth through time, describing events that led up to this predicament, and things that happened as a result of it.  The main idea,  or event, that is talked about is Colton's visit to Heaven.  The narrator, Colton's father, explains what Colton tells him about it.  While he was in surgery, Colton saw himself lying there on the table being worked on, and his parents in other rooms praying and calling loved ones.  Colton told his father how angels sang to him to clam him down, and how he got to hang out with Jesus, and meet all kinds of people.  I'm not very far into this book, but I can already tell that it is going to be a good read.