Today we offer you an inside glimpse of Gina Heumann's new memoir, Love Never Quits: Surviving & Thriving After Infertility, Adoption, and Reactive Attachment Disorder.
Author: Gina Heumann
Publisher: MadLand Press
Pages: 246
Genre: Memoir
WHACK…
At three in the morning Gina was sound asleep, yet somehow she was smacked in
the head. She looked over at her husband, thinking perhaps he accidentally
rolled over and flopped his arm on top of her, but he was sleeping soundly and
facing the opposite direction. She turned to the other side and glaring back at
her was her eight-year-old child.
“Did
you just hit me?”
“Yes,
and I’d do it again.”
“Whyyyy?”
“Because
you took away my video games.”
“That
was EIGHT HOURS AGO. And you’re still mad about it?”
“I
wish I could kill you.”
This
is the true story of the hell one family lived through parenting a child with
reactive attachment disorder, a severe diagnosis related to children who
experienced early-childhood trauma.
This
inspirational story covers over a decade of daily struggles until they finally
found resolution and made it to the other side. The family remained intact, and
this once challenging son is now achieving things never thought possible.
The Beginning
“I think I want to be a mom,” I
declared one day.
This came as quite a shock to my
husband, Aaron.
Marriage itself wasn’t part of my
original plan. After going through my parents’ contentious divorce and living
with one of my mom’s abusive boyfriends, my view on “happily ever after” was a
bit tainted. I wasn’t going to do that. I had dreams of being one of those Sex in the City girls—with a successful
career, girlfriends, travel, and a closet full of designer shoes. Marriage and
kids seemed so mundane and expected. So it was quite a surprise to me when I
met Aaron and realized that the plan had changed.
It happened on our first date.
In college, I went out with one of
my best friend’s brothers. I knew the entire family except him, as my future
in-law’s home was a hangout spot for us in graduate school. My father-in-law
was a professor and had a computer at home, which he generously allowed us to
use. This was the early ’90s, so laptops hadn’t been invented and writing a
paper for college meant waiting in line for the computer lab to type up the
final copy and print. Visits to the Heumann house often meant dinner with the
family and sometimes even a load of laundry. Aaron wasn’t living there, so I
knew his mom, dad, brother, and sister before I knew him. I loved them all and
was starting to see that “successful and single” wasn’t the only way to go.
They were a pretty amazing family.
On our first date, we weren’t
quite sure if it was a date or not. He thought I was going out with him as a
favor to his sister, because he needed a date to a fraternity party that would
feature a somewhat big-name band, and he already had two tickets. I thought he thought I was doing his sister a
favor and just needed a date. I had met him several weeks prior and thought he
was awfully cute, so I was secretly hoping it was a date. Turns out, we both
really liked each other the last two times we had met, but each thought the
other was dating someone. That first date was magical. I had found my soulmate.
After the party, the hot tub, and
a two-block walk in subzero temperatures back to his apartment, he asked me to
spend the night to avoid driving me home on black ice. He was gentlemanly,
offering me some sweatpants and his bed while he slept on the couch. I took the
sweatpants but shared the bed … but I knew in the back of my mind that whatever
happened on that date would most likely get back to his sister. So it was a
reasonably innocent night together. The next morning, we ordered pizza and
watched a football game, and when he dropped me off, I had a somewhat panicked
thought that I couldn’t shake:
“Crap, there goes my plan.”
I knew I would marry him and the Sex in the City dream would die. Or
change. Or morph into something different.
So the new plan was now marriage
to the coolest guy ever, a successful career, couple friends, travel, no kids, and a closet full of designer
shoes.
Her latest book is Love Never
Quits: Surviving & Thriving After Infertility, Adoption, and Reactive
Attachment Disorder.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
Website Link: www.ginaheumann.com
Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/loveneverquits
