|
While her parents are serving as Ambassadors in Sweden, high school freshman Hannah Roberts lives with a cold and distant Grandmother in a cavernous mansion. It seems, besides the physical presence of her parents Hannah has everything going for her. She attends the best school in D.C. and participates in all manner of private lessons, and is very popular with her peers. Hannah seems to have everything she wants, needs and even more. But something is missing.
Late at night, when the house is silent and Hannah finally drifts off to sleep, she dreams of another time when she was younger and the man she called daddy read books to her and laughed with her and sang songs with his guitar. This daddy was totally unlike Hannah’s stoic serious man she called Father. She doesn’t know why she dreams of this happy time until her mother, in an effort to make amends for the fact Hannah’s mother and father can’t come home at Christmas because of political obligations divulges a secret. She hopes the secret will keep Hannah preoccupied during the season. The secret splits Hannah’s world wide open and brings a very private history to a very public light.
In Iraq Army Soldier Mike Meade is an ace chopper pilot, with an empty place in his spirit where a daughter used to be. The only thing he has to connect him with her is the few possessions in a worn paper bag he’s carried with him for eleven years. When a top mission is organized, Mike volunteers because unlike the others he has no wife and no family. This mission may prove to be his last.
Hannah’s driver who is a Christian. He has been with the family forever and always offers to pray for her. When Hannah asks him for a specific Christmas miracle, he gifts a pair of red mittens to remind her to believe at this season of wonder and season of miracles that her miracle can come true.
This is by far my favorite in the Red Glove series. Perhaps because I have three military heroes in my life who are serving or have served in the United States Marine Corps. Karen Kingsbury gives us a realistic glimpse into the hell that is war and the heroes who serve in the military very single day – selflessly putting others before themselves. I thank the Lord for them and for the spouses who keep things running back at home when duty calls them away. Especially now when the mid-east, especially Iraq and Afghanistan are so volatile and our troops are in the middle of it all.
At the end of the book the author gives simple ideas of how to support military members this Christmas. I am so thankful for her tender spirit and encouragement. Oftentimes these days we only hear the bad about military and the war in Iraq-I for one applaud Ms. Kingsbury for putting words to her feelings. I will be giving this book to Marine Corps families for Christmas. It is like a soothing ointment to often times broken spirits.
Reviewed by Linda Mae Baldwin
for The Road to Romance
September 30, 2005
|
