by
SARAH SWINDELL
Genre: Memoir / Family / Autism
Date of Publication: August 2, 2019
Number of Pages: 256
***Scroll down for giveaway!***
In 1991, twenty-one-year-old Sarah, the recently divorced mother to two-year-old Hayley, moved from the dusty small town of Farmington, New Mexico to the bustling city of Houston, Texas with dreams of a better life. A year later, she was swept off her feet by Greg Swindell, an established Major League Baseball player who had just signed a lucrative contract with the Houston Astros and was quickly becoming the talk of the city.
Six weeks after their first date, Greg asked Sarah to quit her job as a hairdresser and marry him during Spring Training in Florida. Over the next several years, Sarah's Cinderella story continued with the addition of three more children, a lifestyle only a few ever dream of living, and a love story even fewer ever experience.
That is until 2002 when her picture-perfect life came to a gut-wrenching halt, and Sarah was faced with more pain than she ever thought possible. For almost a decade, the puzzle pieces would cease to align due to an avalanche of events; a devastating autism diagnosis, a painful affair, multiple marriages, multiple divorces and her children's own personal struggles with self-harm, eating disorders, and attempted suicide.
If you have ever felt lost, betrayed, or heartbroken, this story will inspire you to never give up on finding true joy and happiness again. It will prove there is no such thing as the “perfect family” and that difficult times can actually make you stronger than you ever dreamed possible.
PRAISE FOR ROUNDING HOME:
"In Rounding Home , Sarah writes with gritty honesty, a deeply moving account of life with her autistic son. This testament to the resilience of the human spirit will touch your heart and soul." -- Gayle Nobel, life coach, autism mom, and author of three books about living with autism
"This story of the Swindell family is a poignant demonstration of how each family member responded and was changed , for better or worse, as they struggled to come to terms with how their lives had been altered . And although there was damage along the way, they ultimately triumph by rekindling the love that created their family unit in the first place ." -- Dr. Bryan Jepson , author, physician, and father of two sons with autism
PROLOGUE, PART TWO
FROM ROUNDING HOME
BY SARAH SWINDELL
Austin, Texas - Winter
2011 (continued)
I backed out of the driveway and pushed my Dixie Chicks CD in. I
knew that I was only torturing myself by listening to it when I was already so
upset, but I did it anyway. This was our music, Greg’s and
mine.
As the Dixie Chicks sang, my mind raced back to all that
had happened in the last year and a half. Tears started to pour down my face as
a profound sadness filled my entire body. Even though Greg’s affair with my
best friend had happened over a year ago, the heartbreaking images of them
together were etched in my brain. It played over and over and over like a
horror movie that I was being forced to sit and watch. I was still filled with
so many questions and no real answers.
I missed Greg so much it hurt, while at the same time I
hated him for what he had done to me and to our family. But I hated her more;
she plotted, planned and pretended to be my best friend as she intentionally
shattered my family into a million pieces.
How was I going to continue living this way? I was so
tired in every way possible, I felt as if life was dragging me down a path I
didn’t have the strength to endure any longer. I felt like a failure as a
mother; not only was I unable to help my son who was so clearly struggling, I
wasn’t present for my three daughters who desperately needed me. My life had once
been a beautiful fairytale, and now it felt like an ugly living nightmare, and
I was terrified to continue living in it. My dark, clouded mind whispered that
my children would be better off without me, a new stepmother down the road
would most certainly do a better job than I ever could; at least she would be a
better example for my daughters. I loved Dawson so much, I just couldn’t figure
out how to watch his daily struggles through life anymore. I wondered if he was
as miserable as I was. How could he not be?
I sped up as I approached the overpass. It was still dark
out, the only illumination detectable emanated from the dim lights of empty
stores in the distance, fuzzy through the thick layer of fog still blanketing
the city. There were hardly any cars on the road this early in the morning, and
I wondered if anyone would even notice when we sailed through the concrete
barrier.
Would
my car crashing to the pavement below make a sound loud enough for anyone to
hear? Was the overpass high enough? Was I going fast enough? I sped up a little
more as I gripped the wheel a little tighter.
Sarah Swindell lives in the Austin area with her husband, Greg, a former Major League Baseball player and 2019 Texas Sports Hall of Fame inductee. Sarah is a commercial actress/model and has been working in the industry for over thirty years. She enjoys spending her free time with her four grown children and several grandchildren who WEBSITE ⬧ BLOG GOODREADS ⬧ TWITTER ⬧ INSTAGRAM AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE
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***GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!***
FOUR WINNERS:
SIGNED COPIES OF ROUNDING HOME
+ SIGNED GREG SWINDELL BASEBALL CARD
August 22-September 1, 2019
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