Gary Chapman - Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities

Praise for Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families

Dr. Chapmans wisdom on communication has been a blessing to countless couples. Paired with Jolene Philos personal experience and insights, I know this book will help strengthen families struggling with disability. Husbands and wives, parents and childrenwe all need tools to help us make the most of our personal connections. With a frank and honest observation on how disability can unravel family unity, Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families inspires and equips us to live out our faith as we interact with those we love.

JONI EARECKSON TADA | Founder/CEO, Joni and Friends

Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families is a must-have resource for all parents who have a child with special needs. So often as parents of a child with disabilities, we put our marriages on the back burner, and find ourselves struggling to keep it healthy and thriving. This book will help you discover your personal love language, as well as your mates. Equipped with this crucial understanding, you can implement the books practical advice on how to love your partner through their love language, in a way only a parent with a child with disabilities would understand. But it doesnt stop there. It also helps parents figure out the love language of their child with disabilities and the unique ways we can show abundant love to them as we become fluent in their love language. I will be recommending this book to all of my families.

AMY KENDALL | Disabilities Minister at Saddleback Church

Gary and Jolenes new book, Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families, lights the way for parents to find each other in the complex journey of raising a family when a child is diagnosed with a disability. The five love languages provide tender support to a spouse whos managing practical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of raising a child with a disability and applies them to other relationshipswith the child, siblings, and extended family. Professionals will gain insights to better support families. Parents will appreciate the ease in which the love languages can become part of self-care and growth as they raise their families.

SHELLY CHRISTENSEN | Parent of a child with a disability and author of From Longing to BelongingA Practical Guide to Including People with Disabilities and Mental Health Conditions in Your Faith Community

Special needs parents are inundated with advice on how to educate, medicate, feed, and treat their children. But few resource show families how to enjoy them, according to their unique abilities until now. Dr. Chapman and Jolene Philo are the perfect combination to offer this practical and needed wisdom, not to burden parents with more to do, but more to love and enjoy. Sharing Love Abundantly prescribes more fun and less fixing, a message all weary special needs families need!

DIANE DOKKO KIM | Author of Unbroken Faith: Spiritual Recovery for the Special-Needs Parent

Dr. Gary Chapman and Jolene Philo have written a desperately needed resource for the special needs community. As an adult on the autism spectrum, I am familiar with the challenges of understanding the social cues and nonverbal communication that is critical to connecting to my family, friends, and loved ones. Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families has provided parents, families, and caregivers with the tools needed to accommodate their childs greatest need, the need to feel loved. This book is a major win for the special needs community!

LAMAR HARDWICK | Pastor, autism advocate, and author of I Am Strong: The Life and Journey of an Autistic Pastor

Creativity oozes from the pages of this new book by Gary Chapman and Jolene Philo. Gathering ideas from many parents of children with unique medical, sensory, and emotional wiring, Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families brings the trusted framework of the love languages and interprets that language for the relationships represented in these often-complex situations. What an inspiring new offering for parents and family members desiring to say I love you in a way best received by their child as well as others in the childs life.

BARBARA J. NEWMAN | National speaker and author of several books including Accessible Gospel, Inclusive Worship, and Autism and Your Church

Eighteen years ago, we were in over our heads, as a young married couple, with a toddler and a newborn with special needs. Due to our sons special needs, it took us months to connect with him in meaningful ways. Oh, I wish we had this book then! Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families combines Dr. Chapmans five love languages with Jolenes parental and educational experience to produce a must-have resource for families and ministry leaders.

JOE BUTLER | Founder and CEO of Ability Tree, an organization coming alongside families impacted by disability through recreation, education, support, and training

Every living soul needs love. This is true for children with disabilities as much as it is for typical kids. Together, Gary Chapman and Jolene Philo combine decades of frontline experience to teach us how to create uniquely tailored love for each member of our special needs family. Practical, specific, inclusive, and useful, this book is a primer for how to reach each individual heart that makes up our home. As a special-needs parent for more than twenty years and ministry leader in the disabilities community, this is a go-to tool I recommend wholeheartedly.

BECKY DAVIDSON | Cofounder and president of Rising Above Ministries
Coauthor, Common Man, Extraordinary Call with Jeff Davidson Founder of Redefine This Life

Learning your child has special needs can trigger so many fears and uncertainties: What will life be like for my child? For me? What about medical care, education, my childs future? Perhaps scariest of all, Will my child be able to know how much I love them? The answer to the last question is a resounding yes. In Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families, Gary and Jolene teach parents and caregivers how to communicate love in ways their children can understand. Encompassing a wide range of recommendations for children with different special needs, here you can learn how to unlock the love language your child already knows and root your relationship firmly in a foundation of love.

ELRENA EVANS | Author, disability advocate, and editor and content specialist for Evangelicals for Social Action

Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families equips families to express love more meaningfully to one another. With the stresses that come with having special needs, children and parents need to communicate well to sustain relationships. This clear, practical, and helpful book can strengthen families. Anyone with a child with special needs, or who loves a family with such a child, will find this book worthwhile.

KATHY KUHL | Author, Homeschooling Your Struggling Learner; speaker and coach for parents teaching students with learning challenges

Dr. Gary Chapman and Jolene Philo have delivered a must-have resource for families and caregivers of children with special needs. Both insightful and compassionate, the guidance and real-life stories in this book have the power to change the lives of all who read it. I cant recommend it highly enough.