Most people live with “rose-colored glasses” until life knocks them on their butts--never truly understanding what some individuals across the world experience on a daily basis, until it happens to them. Author, Trista Brazan, can say this with confidence as she was one of those people.

In 2014, Trista gave birth to a beautiful baby girl born with only half a heart and a genetic disorder, a devastating combination that left her daughter Claire with grim odds of survival. Although Claire is extremely medically complex, globally developmentally delayed, and severely autistic, she has survived and lives, for now, a happy, contented life most do not understand.

The Claire Chronicles is not a story of miraculous healing or an encounter in heaven. It is a unique and sad but hopeful and positive collection of stories from Claire’s first years of life written mostly from her mother’s point of view but includes input from her older sister and father as well as a pictorial timeline of Claire’s journey.

Her mother’s down-to-earth and humorous narrative incorporates music and scripture to explain that without suffering one cannot find strength. It also explains how a deeper relationship with God was forged during a dark time when she was told daily her child would die, a time when most expected her to give up, but she was called to life for Claire.

The Claire Chronicles is a Christian memoir of how strength can be found from literal heartbreak.