Weekend Giveaway: Spirit-Led Parenting Book {3 Winners}

UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed.

Congrats to:

Patty (keepnfaith88@…)

Laura K (Lna6577@…)

Karen M. (montgomeryke@…)

I will email you shortly!

---

Today’s Weekend Giveaway is a very special one for me.

As many of you know, my first few months of motherhood have been quite rough. I’m the person who always follows the rules. I live by lists, bullet points, and step-by-step instructions. I’m overly annoyed when people show up late for meetings, or worse, completely forget about the meeting. I crave order, structure, and predictability. I ALWAYS have a plan.

Then I had Nora — and all that flew out the window!

After reading all sorts of parenting books and coming up with my “plan for parenting” — which of course, included an always happy baby who would take long naps and sleep through the night by 8 weeks — I was extremely confident in my motherly ability. I had a dream pregnancy with almost NO adverse side-effects. My labor was quick and relatively painless. Now all I had to do was get Nora on a schedule like the books instructed me how to do 🙂

The only problem was, their “instructions” didn’t work… at all! 

After months of taking everyone else’s advice and feeling like a complete failure, I finally decided to do what worked for us. And since I write all my blog posts several days/weeks in advance, I actually got chills when I read the first chapter of Spirit-Led Parenting the very same day I wrote this post… I felt like this book was written for me! 

Megan and Laura have the gift of words, and I’m so happy to share their book with all of you today. But first, I’d like you to read a few words from Laura about how she and Megan met and formed a friendship that soon led them to write this amazing book.

This journey had an unconventional beginning.

Two mothers who’d never met, we cradled baby daughters born just weeks apart.  Through the phenomenon of internet message boards, we each joined the same tribe of Mama friends with similar due dates.  And there was a special kinship between the two of us right away – a wealth of commonalities so remarkable that we joked frequently about our almost freakish “mind-twinnery”.  It wasn’t until those first babies were well into the toddler years, though, that we uncovered a common bond that would change our lives and unite us behind an unexpected calling.

We discovered that we had lived much the same story as new mothers.  One of heartache, frustration, and failure.  And eventually –  redemption. 

We had no idea that our deeply personal journeys through the first year of motherhood would become anything more than topics for phone calls and emotional e-mail conversations.  Eventually, though, as we talked and prayed and heard our experiences echoed in those of other mothers, it became clear that this was something bigger than us.  We were being led to step out and give a voice to another way to approach infant parenting. And a publisher came alongside to take a leap with us.

That leap became Spirit-Led Parenting: From Fear to Freedom in Baby’s First Year.

Why did we write this book?

Five words, sprinkled throughout our conversations and read over and over in blog comments and stories from mothers across the country and other continents, contain the answer.  Five words spoken from the wistful perspective of hindsight:

“I wish someone told me…”

I wish someone told me how rule-driven baby manuals that worked wonders in some families would cause only fear and angst in others.

I wish someone told me that some infants just won’t do things by the book, and some parents won’t want to – or be able to – make the mainstream methodology for sleep and schedules work in their homes.

I wish someone told me that that’s okay.

I wish someone told me to relax and breathe through the first months of my baby’s life.  That the last thing a new parent needs in those weary days and nights is to unnecessarily shoulder the weight of failed expectations.

I wish someone told me that there was a way to navigate new parenthood under a banner of freedom.  That the One who created me, my husband, and my baby with exquisite uniqueness was faithful to provide the perfectly-crafted answers for each question we would face as we cared for the tiny creature He placed in our arms.

I wish someone told me that if I allowed Him to, God would use that first year of my daughter’s life to grow me – in Him.

We wrote this book because our stories gave way to a message that God wrote on each of our hearts and drew together as two parts of a whole.  With humbled hearts and trembling hands we are sending that message into the world in the hopes that our stories and struggles and lessons learned will give other new parents the blessing of looking back with fewer wistful wishes.

Spirit-Led Parenting is the first release from authors Megan Tietz and Laura Oyer. Megan writes about faith, family and natural living at SortaCrunchy and lives in western Oklahoma with her husband and two daughters. Laura blogs her reflections on the real and ridiculous things of life at In The Backyard, and makes her home in Indiana with her husband, daughter, and son.

---

Now wouldn’t this book just be the perfect Mother’s Day gift? I know I’m planning to pass my copy along now that I’m finished reading it. 

You can purchase your own copy on Amazon.com — but if you’re interested in this book, make sure you enter my giveaway below!

The Giveaway:

Today, THREE lucky readers will win a copy of Spirit-Led Parenting.

How to Enter:

1. {required} Leave a comment on this post. Who would you LOVE to give this book to?

2. {optional} Like Simple Organized Living on Facebook, and then leave a separate comment letting me know you did {or that you do already}.

If you are reading this in your email or feed reader, please visit the actual blog post to enter. Email entries, Facebook comments, and Twitter messages will NOT be counted.

Prizes:

(3) Copies of Spirit-Led Parenting as described above.

---

This giveaway ends at 10:00 pm on Monday, 4/30/2012 and is open to US residents, 18 years or older. I will use And the Winner Is to select the winning comments at random. Winners will be notified by email and noted at the top of this post. Winners must respond within 48 hours of notification to claim their prize or I will choose a new winner. Please see my full disclosure policy and contact me with any questions you have. Good luck!