To recovering '80s kid Amy Liz Harrison, getting sober and giving birth were shockingly similar. And she's uniquely qualified to know since she's been sober for over a decade and has given birth to eight children (nope, this sentence has no typos).
Before she was a sober mom of an army and living in the suburbs of Seattle, Harrison was a creative Christian kid in 1980s Mountain View, California (Google and Facebook hadn't made it cool yet). After running amok at church camp and dreaming of becoming the next Madonna, she moved to Los Angeles, graduated from college and married an airline executive.
Grounded by life as a young teacher turned stay-at-home mom to four kids, Harrison watched her husband's career soar. He gained altitude, earning promotions, and relocating the family as she struggled with excess baggage. Depression, isolation, boredom, and a devastating crisis of faith led to extra glasses (or bottles) of wine at the end of the day. Which eventually led to being led away from her kids in handcuffs.
Ten years of sobriety and four more babies later, Harrison realized that giving birth and getting sober were kinda sorta the same. In some ways, her story is unique (really, who has eight kids these days?), but it's also the experience of many other travelers. People get sober and transform their lives. Jet lag, childbirth, or alcoholism-they all require recovery.
Try not to gasp through Harrison's wild trip from Bay Area adolescent to young mother to incarcerated drunk and ultimately to the epiphany that if she gives her health and recovery priority boarding, she can eternally expect everything else in her life to fly first class. A recovery memoir like no other, Eternally Expecting is a hilarious romp through a serious issue and a memorable story from one of recovery's most original new voices.
