Rain Dance

Title: RAIN DANCE
Author: Joy DeKok
Publisher: Sheaf House
August 2009
ISBN: 978-0-9797485-9-2
Genre: Inspirational/women’s fiction

Jonica wants a baby. She and her husband, Ben, have gone through years of fertility treatments, and they have failed. Now, in debt from the procedures, and tired of failing, they decided to let go, and give it up to God. But the decision still hurts. Jonica longs for a child.

Stacie is pregnant and doesn’t want to be. She and her husband have desires to build their careers and get more material goods before starting a family. She has decided to eliminate the problem. She schedules an abortion, and without telling her husband, Mike, has an abortion. But Mike isn’t as thrilled as Stacie is, and he leaves her.

Hurt both by the abortion and her husband’s reaction, Stacie goes to Jonica in anger, blaming her for both her guilt and Mike. Can these two women form an uncommon friendship that will forge their futures?

RAIN DANCE is a powerful novel about infertility and abortion. After reading Jonica’s point of view, I went and thanked God for my five children, and that I’ve never had to worry about infertility. I hurt for the women who have suffered from this. Stacie’s point of view was harder to read, as she chose to kill her baby instead of even considering giving it up for adoption. I wondered if Jonica considered adoption.

The book does tend to get a bit preachy in spots, but it reads well, and the characters are loveable. This book is a story that captures what women on both sides of the pregnancy spectrum (infertility, and an unwanted pregnancy) must feel, and is a book that will reach both groups of women, offering them hope, encouragement in Christ, and is actually a valuable resource. This is a book that every church should have in its library. Discussion questions and additional resources are included at the end of the book. $12.99. 343 pages.