My Journey of Grief, Hope, and Faith

Jason E. Bouchard

Description

I have come to believe that God uses these battles of adversity to move you into your true purpose in life, his calling for you. We may not understand it at first but with our faith we must trust his path for us.

Growing up in the whaling city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, author Jason E. Bouchard enjoyed a special relationship with his parents. He was a momma’s boy, and his dad is his best friend. Bouchard cherished the relationship with his mother, sharing a love for midnight ice cream snacking. She was his biggest supporter in life, and he constantly strived to make her proud.



In February of 2021, Bouchard learned his mother had cancer that spread quickly, and within three weeks she passed away. In My Journey of Grief, Hope, and Faith, he shares his story of learning to live through his grief, offering examples of practices that helped him to adapt and grow. Through the process, Bouchard came to understand his mother lived her purpose and left a lasting legacy for her family and many others.



My Journey of Grief, Hope, and Faith was inspired by his mother’s story and legacy that turned into Bouchard’s story. He seeks to provide hope and support for others struggling with their own grief.

Sujets

• Religious
• Lettres et linguistique
• Biography
• Journey
• Faith
• Grief
• Hope
• Autobiography
• Time

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 06 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664293403
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

My Journey of Grief, Hope, and Faith
 
 
 
 
 
Jason E. Bouchard
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2023 Jason E. Bouchard.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9339-7 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9340-3 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023903354
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 03/06/2023
 
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
 
Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.
 
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation in Today’s English Version- Second Edition Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission
 
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
 
The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB. Copyright ©2016, 2020 by Bible Hub. Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
Contents
Dedication
Intro
 
1       The Story
2       The Final Goodbye
3       Grief
4       Hope
5       Faith
6       Family
7       Support
8       The Journal
9       Fighting Demons
10     Strength
11     Time
12     Purpose
13     Your Next Chapter
14     One More
15     A Letter to my Boys
16     Praying for a Miracle
17     Thank you
 
A Special Thanks
About the Author
Dedication
This book is dedicated to
PAMELA A. BOUCHARD
A loving mother, grandmother, and wife. Without your love and guidance in life I would never have had the confidence to write this book. I know that you are watching over us and guiding us daily. Love and miss you Mom.

Intro
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
– Christian Standard Bible, Proverbs, Chapter 16, Verse 9
I am not a counselor, and this is not a step-by-step book to help you through grief. I am just sharing my journey of grief, hope, and faith, and the practices that have helped me adapt and grow. Hopefully if you are struggling with grief that you can take something away from this book to incorporate into your life. Or at the very least you can see from my experiences that even through grief you can still experience happiness and joy.
Grief is not something that you can just overcome. This is not battling through an ankle sprain to finish the championship game. Grief is losing a piece of you. Grief changes you and your life. You build and establish a new normal. Through your grief journey you can chose to continue moving forward and molding yourself into who you are after your loss.
Anyone who has lost a loved one understands the journey of grief is a dark and sometimes lonely journey. Grief challenges you in ways that you are not prepared for and can strike you at any moment and leave you breathless. Grief to me also has no specific cycle or time period. When you lose a loved one the pain doesn’t just go away one day, you learn to live with that hole in your heart and to adapt.
This book describes my day to day after the passing of my mother. Including my struggles, my anger, my anxiety, and my fears. Also, my resilience, my faith, my family, my gratitude, my growth, my journey, and my story.
My struggle with grief helped me to look deeper into my life and into my priorities. It helped me to find my purpose and to reflect on my mother’s purpose. Grief helped me to realize the power of prayer and faith.
I hope that you find solace in my journey of grief, hope, and faith and that you realize that even through pain that time is a blessing and the memories we make will last in our hearts forever.
1
The Story
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
– New International Version Bible, Psalms, Chapter 23, Verse 4
I now wear a dog tag with my mother’s fingerprint and that Psalm 23 quote in remembrance.
I want to share my story and journey of grief and hopefully through this story others can better understand grief and be impacted to help people going through a similar journey.
I grew up in the whaling city of New Bedford, Massachusetts and lived there until I moved to Florida in 2002. I have a younger sister, Kaitlyn. Dad is Leo and mom is Pamela. As for my own family, I have two boys (Elijah Ernest and Lucas Leo) and my beautiful wife Morgan. My younger sister Kaitlyn and I were very fortunate with the relationship we had with our parents. I am a momma’s boy, and my dad is my best friend. My sister is a daddy’s girl and mom was her best friend.