About the Book
When Edith was stillborn without warning, the authors were both stunned and confused. Where should they turn for help? Who would answer their burning questions?
One in in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage; one in 200 in stillbirth. And yet, while the church offers resources to cope with suffering more generally, there is often an echoing silence when it comes to the trauma of baby loss. 'When we lost our daughter Edith, say the authors, 'it was painful indeed to find the lack of biblically rooted and pastorally sensitive resources.'
Nothing really hit the mark, so, though tears, they wrote their own book. This little volume comes to you, or to someone close to you, with a massive hug. It is Jonny and Joanna's passion and prayer that you will be amazed by our great God as you connect with deep biblical truths, bringing healing to your heart, mind and soul.
Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION:
THAT DAY
PART 1: WEEPING
I. THE HAPPY-EVER-BEFORE
II. GROANING AS IN THE PAINS OF CHILDBIRTH
III. GOODBYE, LITTLE ONE
IV. INTERLUDE: THE VOICE
V. TOO SHORT A GRAVE
PART 2: WALKING
VI. BLAME AND SHAME
VII.CRYING IN COMMUNITY
VIII.BEING A MAN, GRIEVING A CHILD
IX. INTERLUDE: THE ONLY SON OF HIS MOTHER
PART 3: WAITING
X. HOPING FOR RAINBOWS
XI. THE HAPPY ENDING?
XII.I WILL GO TO HER
About the Author :
Jonny and Joanna Ivey are part of The Gate Church in Birmingham, UK, a plant on a multi-ethnic estate in the city centre, and Heirs magazine, when they are not at their day jobs as civil servants. Jonny's first book was On Purpose: Enjoying Life As It Was Intended (Cruciform / Desiring God Partnership). They have a young son called Josiah and a daughter called Halle.
Review :
Jonny and Joanna, thank you for writing this book! Thank you for sharing your life with us. Thank you for your authenticity, and for allowing us to walk with you through the loss of your dear daughter, Edith.
As a pastor and counsellor, I highly recommend this book. If you have been through loss and you are looking for help, Silent Cries will feel more like a compassionate friend than a book. If you want to understand the grief of losing a child, Silent Cries will immediately welcome you into Jonny and Joanna's story. You will feel a part of the family journeying with this couple. Above all, you will be more convinced of the deep need that we all have to know that Jesus has suffered and understands us today.
In this refreshingly honest and well-written account of the loss of their precious daughter, Jonny and Joanna Ivey allow us to journey alongside of them on their path of loss, grief, healing and hope. Rather than shying away from the deep questions of faith that often taunt us in our darkest days of grief, they allow us to glean from the truths they’ve discovered as Christ has walked with them through it.
Whether you have experienced the loss of a child or have simply known the crushing weight of grief, you will find the pages of this book to be a comfort and an encouragement as you learn to walk with Christ on the path where joy and sorrow meet.
Most books don't make me cry, but this rare and wrenching meditation on the grief of child-loss did. The heartache of losing a baby is still a taboo subject for many.
Every grieving parent - and all who love and comfort them - will instantly empathize with Joanna and Jonny's Jesus-saturated lament
Silent Cries flows from a harrowing experience of personal tragedy. Jonny and Joanna Ivey are honest about the cacophony of emotions associated with grief. At the same time we see their darkness illuminated by the comforts found in Scripture as they affirm that even in the darkness Jesus is enough.
Sooner or later we all have to walk dark paths. This book helps us to face such times with courage and confidence. It is highly recommended.
Losing a baby is a deep yet often hidden tragedy. The pain can overwhelm and the questions feel endless. There are no easy answers in the pages of this book, but in meeting a family who have lost, we all gain precious companions for our personal journeys of grief - be that after losing a child ourselves or from loving someone who has done.
A compelling read, this is raw and real - at times tears may flow - but every chapter is infused with beautiful hope. Hope not in a quick fix, but in a precious Saviour whose comforting and sustaining hand never fails.
Silent Cries has all the beauty of a well-crafted memoir—detail-driven, honest, engaging, compelling, inviting, vulnerable—with all the benefits of a reliable non-fiction resource on grief–biblical, truth-filled, accessible, comforting and encouraging. Jonny and Joanna courageously welcome readers into their story of sorrow with the best sort of hospitality, skillfullly demonstrating vulnerability and honesty in a way that moves beyond reflection or catharsis to offer companionship, hope and help for those who find themselves grappling with the trauma of stillbirth and grieving a child whose cries they long to hear.
This is the book I wish I had had to hand for my dearest friend when her precious baby girl was born asleep last year, and it is undoubtedly a resource I will keep on hand and recommend for couples walking this tragic road, in order that though paved with pain, the way might be lit with the character of God and the hope of the gospel.
Moving, honest, beautifully written. Fresh insights into the mystery of baby loss seen through the eyes of Christian faith. Heartbreaking but hopeful.
Both heartbreaking and hope-bringing, Silent Cries will leave you rejoicing in the unshakeable hope of Christ. The Iveys relay their story in such a way that you’ll eagerly turn the pages until it is done. I’m excited for the witness this book will be to Jesus, and pray it gets into the hands of many grieving parents, both believers and unbelievers alike.
Beautifully and brilliantly written, Silent Cries tells the story of the shocking death in utero of baby Edith Joy Adeah, and her parents’ subsequent journey through all that follows—the traumatic stillbirth, the heart-wrenching farewell, the sad burial, and the ongoing complexity of grief thereafter. Jonny and Joanna, Edith’s parents, courageously invite us into their vulnerable process of grappling with their daughter’s death.
Because of a similar experience, I cried through most of this book, but I was also moved to a renewed hope, as the gospel of Jesus Christ was so wonderfully applied in the face of death, chapter after chapter. But this is not just a book for parents who have lost a baby; it is also a book for any church that has lost a baby. "If one member suffers, all suffer together" (1 Cor. 12:26). Silent Cries will help us all to grieve better when a baby in our church dies, and to hope stronger and longer for that day when Jesus Christ will return to raise the dead, and bring his chosen ones into a new creation where death will be no more. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
