J Marie

Find Your Way Home J Marie

.... those people and places. None of them seemed real anymore. It's like that day his grandparents came in June, he packed up all he had. And, it all fit in a duffel bag....

Where are you supposed to go when you're a thirteen-year-old city kid, your mom has just been thrown in jail for a repeat DUI drug charge, and you've never even met the man who is your father? You certainly can't count on your mom's latest drug dealer boyfriend to offer any support - he's basically kicking you to the curb, making it abundantly clear he couldn't care less what happens to you.

A story of faith for today, Find Your Way Home is a tale of friendship and family, portraying the life of Elliott, a troubled young teen whose world is darkened by the effects of his mother's drug and alcohol addiction and the physical abuse at the hands of her boyfriend. Even though, at first, he doesn't see it as such, his saving grace is found in his grandparents' insistence that he live with them while his mother serves her time in prison and state-mandated treatment program.

It's in the quaint, lakeside town of Lake Belle, Minnesota, near his grandparents' farm, that Elliott crosses paths with the Eastman kids, Daniel and his sister Lauryn. Over the years, even though they come from radically different circumstances, the Eastman's accept Elliott as their "other brother," and a deep friendship develops between the three children, with an especially poignant bond between Elliott and Lauryn.

Years pass, the children become adults, and life takes them in completely different directions. It's only when a series of life events suddenly forces Elliott to acknowledge his deep-seated feelings of shame and resentment over his mother's decade-long battle with addiction, and a soul-searching recognition of his true feelings considering marriage and his future, that he finally discovers what family, home, and love really means.