Before I Got Here

Before I Got Here
Author: Blair Underwood
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2020-07-13
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 145161635X

NAACP Image Award–winning actor Blair Underwood collects the best of the profound words of America’s children—including his own—in this touching collection perfect for sharing with loved ones. Blair Underwood, known to millions as a star of television and film, has delivered brilliant performances in Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker and as the voice of Makuu in Disney Channel’s The Lion Guard, among others. But his proudest accomplishment is being a loving husband and father of three children who keep him in touch with the true meaning of life—not fame, but family. When Blair Underwood’s young son told him the dream he had about “the last night before there are no more mornings and no more nights,” Underwood asked him, “Who told you that?” His son replied, “God told me when he made me, but I only had one ear at the time, so I could only hear a little.” Through conversations with family and friends, Underwood discovered how very often people have children who say things that have “left them with their jaws on the floor.” As a consequence, he and Donyell Kennedy-McCullough created a website as a destination for others to share their profound moments with children. The response from people all over the world was tremendous and led to the creation of Before I Got Here, a collection of the best of the conversations and stories from people’s responses, revealing just how brilliant and spiritually in tune our children can be. Before I Got Here makes you smile in the tradition of Kids Say the Darndest Things, and inspires—with the wonderful photographs of children taken by coauthor Donyell Kennedy-McCullough—is a wonderful gift for ourselves and others, showing the inherent wisdom that children possess, with the power to astound us and change our lives.

We Died Before We Came Here

We Died Before We Came Here
Author: Emily Foreman
Publisher: NavPress
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2016-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1631464523

If not you, who? If not now, when? This was the challenge answered by Stephen Foreman and his wife, Emily, when they traded in their American white picket fence for a giant, dusty sandbox as missionaries in the deserts of North Africa. Stephen had given Emily a well-read copy of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs on their first date, a telling foreshadowing of the ultimate cost he would pay when, at 39, he was shot and killed by al-Qaeda operatives. His life and death planted a seed of boldness and inspiration in the hearts of local believers. This seed would grow and multiply efforts to help reach the very goal that Stephen was willing to give his life for—glorifying God and seeing his Kingdom established among the nations. In this memoir, Emily, left with four kids and an undying calling to reach the Muslim world, recounts their heartrending yet uplifting story of sacrifice and love for a people held captive by the ultimate Enemy. Stephen did not die in vain. This promise echoes through the book’s pages and far beyond, in the minds and lives of countless individuals touched by a man who daily put his life in the hands of God. Because of security issues and the need to protect other workers and local believers in the country, the book employs pseudonyms for all major characters, including the authors.

Ask Me How I Got Here

Ask Me How I Got Here
Author: Christine Heppermann
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2016-05-03
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0062387979

How do you define yourself? By your friends? Your family? Your boyfriend? Your grades? Your trophies? Your choices? By a single choice? From the author of the acclaimed Poisoned Apples comes a novel in verse about a young woman and the aftermath of a life-altering decision. Fans of Laurie Halse Anderson and Ellen Hopkins will find the powerful questions, the difficult truths, and the inner strength that speak to them in Ask Me How I Got Here. Addie has always known what she was running toward, whether in cross country, in her all-girls Catholic school, or in love. Until she and her boyfriend—her sensitive, good-guy boyfriend—are careless one night, and she gets pregnant. Addie makes the difficult choice to have an abortion. And after that—even though she knows it was the right decision for her—nothing is the same. She doesn’t want anyone besides her parents and her boyfriend to know what happened; she doesn’t want to run cross country anymore; she can’t bring herself to be excited about anything. Until she reconnects with Juliana, a former teammate who’s going through her own dark places. Once again, Christine Heppermann writes with an unflinching honesty and a deep sensitivity about the complexities of being a teenager, being a woman. Her free verse poems are moving, provocative, and often full of wry humor and a sharp wit.

Who We Are and How We Got Here

Who We Are and How We Got Here
Author: David Reich
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2018-03-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0192554387

The past few years have seen a revolution in our ability to map whole genome DNA from ancient humans. With the ancient DNA revolution, combined with rapid genome mapping of present human populations, has come remarkable insights into our past. This important new data has clarified and added to our knowledge from archaeology and anthropology, helped resolve long-existing controversies, challenged long-held views, and thrown up some remarkable surprises. The emerging picture is one of many waves of ancient human migrations, so that all populations existing today are mixes of ancient ones, as well as in many cases carrying a genetic component from Neanderthals, and, in some populations, Denisovans. David Reich, whose team has been at the forefront of these discoveries, explains what the genetics is telling us about ourselves and our complex and often surprising ancestry. Gone are old ideas of any kind of racial 'purity', or even deep and ancient divides between peoples. Instead, we are finding a rich variety of mixtures. Reich describes the cutting-edge findings from the past few years, and also considers the sensitivities involved in tracing ancestry, with science sometimes jostling with politics and tradition. He brings an important wider message: that we should celebrate our rich diversity, and recognize that every one of us is the result of a long history of migration and intermixing of ancient peoples, which we carry as ghosts in our DNA. What will we discover next?

This is how We Got Here

This is how We Got Here
Author: Keith Barker
Publisher:
Total Pages: 90
Release: 2017
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9781770918221

Simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, This is How We Got Here follows a close-knit family as they deal with an unexpected loss. A mother, father, aunt, and uncle must learn how to move forward after the trauma and re-learn how to interact with one another with forgiveness, humor, and love.

Got to Give the People What They Want

Got to Give the People What They Want
Author: Jalen Rose
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2015-10-06
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0804138907

“I want to start conversations, and even better, arguments.” – From the Introduction One of the most outspoken and original voices in sports sounds off while revealing his incredible life story. Jalen Rose has never been quiet. Not as a kid growing up in Detroit in the 70’s and 80’s. Not as the brash, trash-talking leader of the legendary “Fab Five” at the University of Michigan. Not as the player under the stewardship of Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas and others throughout his 13-year NBA career. And certainly not as a commentator and analyst on ABC/ESPN and Grantland. In Got to Give the People What They Want, no topic is off limits. Honest, unfiltered, unbiased. Raw, refreshing, real. This colorful collection of stories and opinions about basketball and life gives people the kind of insight and understanding they don’t get anywhere else in the sports world.

I Got Here, You Can Too!

I Got Here, You Can Too!
Author: Bruce A. Berman
Publisher: Bruce A. Berman Publications
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2003
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780974499802

The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture
Author: Randy Pausch
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Cancer
ISBN: 9780340978504

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

Hands Free Mama

Hands Free Mama
Author: Rachel Macy Stafford
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2014-01-07
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 031033814X

Discover the power, joy, and love of living a present, authentic, and intentional life despite a world full of distractions. If technology is the new addiction, then multitasking is the new marching order. We check our email while cooking dinner, send a text while bathing the kids, and spend more time looking into electronic screens than into the eyes of our loved ones. With our never-ending to-do lists and jam-packed schedules, it's no wonder we're distracted. But this isn't the way it has to be. Special education teacher, New York Times bestselling author, and mother Rachel Macy Stafford says enough is enough. Tired of losing track of what matters most in life, Rachel began practicing simple strategies that enabled her to momentarily let go of largely meaningless distractions and engage in meaningful soul-to-soul connections. Finding balance doesn't mean giving up all technology forever. And it doesn't mean forgoing our jobs and responsibilities. What it does mean is seizing the little moments that life offers us to engage in real and meaningful interaction. In these pages, Rachel guides you through how to: Acknowledge the cost of your distraction Make purposeful connection with your family Give your kids the gift of your undivided attention Silence your inner critic Let go of the guilt from past mistakes And move forward with compassion and gratefulness So join Rachel and go hands-free. Discover what happens when you choose to open your heart--and your hands--to the possibilities of each God-given moment.

Heaven, How I Got Here

Heaven, How I Got Here
Author: Colin S. Smith
Publisher: Christian Focus
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-01-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781781915585

Drawing on Bible passages about the events of the day of Jesus' crucifixion, including the thief's own words, the author creates a narrative of the thief's last day on Earth, told from the thief's point of view looking down from Heaven.