This Road We Traveled

I love being a part of Revell Publishing's bloggers program.  

Do you ask why?

Simple, I have been introduced to some fantastic authors. 

Jane Kirkpatrick is one of those authors.  In her knew book, This Road We Traveled, she introduced us to the indomitable Tabitha Brown.  In the spring of 2013 she was approached by a young woman telling her she should write Tabitha Brown's story and how she become known as the "Mother of Oregon".  She took the journals of Tabitha's and created a story around them, but at the same time she introduced us to a very strong woman who contributed largely to history.  Without this book I may never have known about Tabitha Brown.  I have to admit I was pulled into this story quickly and found myself unable to put the book down once I started reading.  This is an incredible story of making a choice, then learning to change for a chance at the path God wants you to travel.

This story is based on factual events that occurred in 1845 where this journey started St. Charles, Missouri.  It's a story that lingered in my mind long after I had closed the book.  

Tabitha  Moffat Brown was an incredible woman with a great strength of character and fortitude.  

She was born in the year of 1780 in Stonington, Conneticut, married to Clark Brown and mother of three children: Orus, Pherne and Manthano.  She traveled to  Missouri in 1824 with her family where they settled until 1845.  During the winter of 1845 we find Tabby now 66 years old and a widow for the past 28 years.  Orus has traveled to the Oregon territory and been gone for 2 years, but as the story opens he has just returned home with great hopes and dreams of moving his family there.  Tabby is heartbroken when her son tells her she is too old and, due to a childhood injury, lame to even consider the journey. They plan to leave her behind in Missouri.  

Tabby was a character that grabbed my heart from the beginning.  She reminded me so much of my great grandmother, Emily, in spirit and spunk.  She kept a journal of her life as a way of remembering the days gone by and by way of organizing what her life was really like.  She had a great faith in God and that he would never fail her, other might, but not God.  She had a motto:

Living in the what-ifs is dangerous.

Those are good questions to ask in the planning of a thing. But once you've decided, well then, you can't keep worrying about what lies ahead. It will rob you. You must take each moment, find the good in it, and be grateful.   

This is a book I would recommend to anyone who loves history or just a good read. 

*I received this book from the publisher for a honest opinion.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.  

This Road We Traveled

Drama, Adventure, and Family Struggles Abound as Three Generations Head West on the Oregon Trail
When Tabitha Brown's son makes the fateful decision to leave Missouri and strike out for Oregon, she refuses to be left behind. Despite her son's concerns, Tabitha hires her own wagon to join the party. Along with her reluctant daughter and her ever-hopeful granddaughter, the intrepid Tabitha has her misgivings. But family ties are stronger than fear.
The trials they face along the way will severely test Tabitha's faith, courage, and ability to hope. With her family's survival on the line, she must make the ultimate sacrifice, plunging deeper into the wilderness to seek aid. What she couldn't know was how this frightening journey would impact how she understood her own life--and the greater part she had to play in history. 

Published September 6th 2016

 by Fleming H. Revell Company  

Available for Purchase:

AMAZON   BARNES & NOBLE  CHRISTIANBOOK

BAKER RETAIL  LIFEWAY  BOOKS-A-MILLION

Meet the Author:

 

Jane Kirkpatrick is the New York Times and CBA bestselling author of more than twenty-five books, including A Sweetness to the Soul, which won the coveted Wrangler Award from the Western Heritage Center. Her works have been finalists for the Christy Award, Spur Award, Oregon Book Award, and Reader's Choice awards, and have won the WILLA Literary Award and Carol Award for Historical Fiction. Many of her titles have been Book of the Month and Literary Guild selections. You can also read her work in more than fifty publications, including Decision, Private Pilot, and Daily Guideposts. Jane lives in Central Oregon with her husband, Jerry.

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