Help Me Turn Hope Into A Book

For years, I’ve carried the desire to write my story.

Many of you already know pieces of it. Some of you have actually lived those pieces alongside me. You’ve prayed for me through illness, visited me in hospitals, encouraged me as I adjusted to losing much of my eyesight, supported me through kidney disease, transplantation and heart disease, walked beside me through grief, celebrated my accomplishments, made me laugh when I desperately needed it, and sometimes simply reminded me that I wasn’t alone.

More than a year ago, I began actively turning those pieces into a memoir. Over the past several months, I became even more intentional about bringing together years of memories, reflection, things I had already written, stories I had carried with me, and parts of my life I was finally ready to put into words.

I worked on this book alongside my job, medical appointments, hospitalizations, fatigue, illness, and the everyday realities of living with chronic health conditions.

And now, I am nearing the completion of my manuscript.

Writing it has required me to revisit some incredibly painful parts of my life, but it has also revealed something that runs throughout my entire story:

Hope.

This book is not about pretending everything turned out perfectly. It didn’t.

I am still legally blind. I still live with significant health challenges, physical pain, limitations, unanswered prayers, and uncertainty about the future.

But I also have joy. I have purpose. I have people I love. I have opportunities to help others. And most importantly, I have a faith that has carried me through things I once thought would destroy me.

One of the messages at the heart of my memoir is this:

Hope is not pretending everything is fine. Hope is knowing that even when it is not fine, it is not finished.

Now I’m reaching the next stage: turning my manuscript into a professionally produced book.

That requires professional proofreading, cover design, interior formatting and typesetting, print preparation, proof copies, publishing setup, and other production expenses.

And this is the part that doesn’t always come naturally to me:

Asking for help.

I am much more comfortable figuring out how to make something happen myself. But I’ve learned that there is humility, not weakness, in allowing other people to come alongside you.

So I’m beginning this fundraiser now to help cover the costs of bringing my memoir from manuscript to finished book.

There is absolutely no expectation or obligation to give. Your friendship, love, and support are not measured by whether you contribute financially.

Some people may be able to give financially. Someone else may share this fundraiser. Someone may pray for the book and the people who will eventually read it. Someone might simply tell me, “Keep going.”

I value all of it.

And no financial contribution is too small. Every dollar given is one less dollar needed to bring this project across the finish line, and I will receive every contribution with tremendous gratitude.

The next couple of months also carry special meaning for me.

On September 29, I will celebrate another year of life. On October 21, I will celebrate three years since receiving my kidney transplant—three years of a second chance at life that I never take for granted.

Those dates aren’t the reason for this fundraiser, but they remind me why I don’t want to keep putting off something that has been on my heart for years.

I’ve been given life, and I’ve been given more of it.

This book is one of the ways I want to use that life well.

I don’t know how many people will eventually read this book or whose hands God may place it into.

But I know why I wrote it.

I wrote it because somewhere there is a person sitting in a hospital room who thinks everybody else has gone back to normal while their life never did.

There is someone adjusting to a disability they never expected.

There is someone grieving.

There is someone exhausted from fighting.

There is someone who loves God but is still angry, scared, confused, or wondering why their prayer hasn’t been answered.

And there is somebody who simply needs to know:

Your story is not over.

If God chooses to use something I have lived through to give another person enough hope to keep going, then every difficult word was worth writing.

Thank you for believing in me, praying for me, loving me, and being part of my story.

With love and tremendous gratitude,

💚Jennifer Marie Moats