From Ashes to Beauty

How a Child of Two Mentally Ill Parents Went from Surviving to Thriving

By: Heather Deffenbaugh

Narrated by: Heather Deffenbaugh

Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

In this compelling and inspiring memoir, Heather bares her soul as she takes us through her awe-inspiring life journey of how she survived a tumultuous childhood riddled with neglect, abandonment, and abuse, and overcame insurmountable odds. She opens the door to her heart and offers us an intimate view into the inner chambers of her life. Her incredible story of surviving the pain of childhood trauma, the consequences of having mentally ill parents, and having to become an adult at a very early age is nothing short of a miracle.

Through the suffering and hardships you’ll see a remarkably strong woman emerge, whose extraordinary resolve brought her through the ashes as she gripped her faith and found the strength to soar. Every painful experience grew her unwavering bravery and eventually catapulted her into the arms of Jesus. Filled with music where the lyrics describe her circumstances and her heart's condition, the chapters will grab your heart, lift your spirits, and inspire you to overcome any obstacle that keeps you shackled to shame and fear. She also brings light to the epidemic of mental illness and how it is time to erase the stigma in our society and in the church.

Heather’s heart’s desire is that From Ashes to Beauty will encourage you to reflect on your own life, fill you with hope, and motivate you to heal the dark places in your soul that keep you in bondage. If you need healing or someone you love does, know that God wastes nothing, and not only will he transform your heart and mind, but he will use your pain for a grand purpose...if you let him!

©2022 Heather Deffenbaugh (P)2023 Heather Deffenbaugh

One of the most inspiring, heart wrenching, emotional and redeeming stories.

Heathers memoir was extremely captivating, and gripped me from the very beginning. Her vivid and heartfelt story immersed me into her life‘s journey, evoking a spectrum of emotions from empathy to triumph. Heathers, raw and real articulation of her childhood, leading into adulthood, painted an incredible picture of what she endured and persevered through. Each page of her audible book kept me hanging onto the edge of my seat. I found myself listening for hours, not being able to take a break. Heather‘s resilience while navigating through unimaginable challenges is a true testament of hope, faith and healing by God’s unwavering love. All Praise and glory to you Lord Jesus!

Soul searching

This book is truly inspiring and keeps you wanting to hear more of Heathers life journey with her family, faith , love and healing. Telling it in her own voice brought me closer to her as the listener. She is brave, fierce and undeniably strong. She exposes her most intimate story to help others who may be in this situation or similar. She shows you that you are not alone and can succeed with help from your faith, family and friends. For me, although I did not have the life she did, in fact it was a complete opposite, it made me grateful and feeling more blessed then I already felt. It made me look at my past and present journey in a different light.
I urge you to listen to this beautiful journey from this newcomer Author and feel the emotions good, bad , ugly and everything in between

Very powerful!

This is such a compelling story, beautifully written and perfectly narrated. Because this is her personal true story, she is able to narrate it with the exact emotion and emphasis that is necessary and it is very easy to listen to. You won’t want to stop until you get to the end and then you will marvel at God’s faithfulness to turn ashes into beauty!

We are never alone

All I can say is WOW Heather! I just finished your book and was amazed how you put yourself out there in the support of Gods hands to share your story with the world. It’s refreshing to know I’m not alone and we have many similarities that I’ve been working with my therapist on. It’s crazy to think that you had it all together and you would never know that you endured so much trauma and pain in your life. You are a beautiful person inside and out, a loving mother and wife. Your story has given me the drive to work on your five pillars. I love how you incorporated God’s word and the lyrics of songs in your story. This book is life changing and will make you really think and make changes in your current situations.