Sh!t No One Tells You

The words of this book seek to express, to make visible and tangible, the central reality that gives meaning to all of human existence: our call to experience the fullness of love and intimacy in the very likeness of the Trinity. They have been born from a prolonged contemplation of the mysteries of the faith, particularly of the mystery of God revealed to us through Christ in the Gospel, and, in the fullest way, in the Paschal Mystery of his Passion and Resurrection. And, in a particular way, this contemplation has come to discover that the "meeting place" by which the call of God meets us in the depths of our humanity is precisely in our bodies, in our concrete bodily existence as man and woman created in the image and likeness of God. It is here that the ineffable mystery of the divine intimacy becomes present and incarnate in all the contours of human existence, allowing each one of us, through sheer grace, to be espoused to God in intimate love, and also to live and manifest his own love and intimacy in our human relationships. This book is therefore a joyful immersion of heart and mind, bathed in contemplative wonder and reverent amazement, into the perennial complementarity of man and woman as an expression and an incarnation of the very inner life of the Trinity, and, through this and beyond this, it also seeks to express a glimpse, a taste, of the very inner life of God himself, our deepest desire and ultimate fulfillment. From this place, however, a rich multiplicity of reflections flows, seeking to draw the heart into the very convergence point of love and intimacy in which the whole of human existence, and indeed the whole of creation, is united as one within the eternal embrace of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The third book in Dawn Dais's popular Sh!t No One Tells You series covers all a parent needs to know once the reality of having two children settles in. Around the time your first baby turns a year old your brain will turn on you. For reasons that are still not understood by science, the sleep deprivation and postpartum hormones you barely survived with your first baby fade from memory and will be replaced with idyllic images of your growing child. This is when your brain, having officially lost all regard for your well-being, begins to fantasize about a second baby. And for the first time since becoming a parent these thoughts don't make you break out in hives. Before you know it, you are dressing your first child in "I'm Going to be a Big Sister!" T-shirts and catalog-shopping for bunk beds. This will be fantastic! But then that familiar morning sickness kicks in. And your adorable 18-month-old transforms into a two-year-old terror. That's when those hives start to return. With Dawn Dais's trademark witty banter, The Sh!t No One Tells You About Baby #2 includes chapters such as "You Have Officially Lost Control of the Situation," "Siblings Aren't Nearly as Adorable as You Imagined," "You'll Have a Favorite," and "Having Kids Looks a Lot Easier on TV."