Motherhood was a miracle it might take me a whole lifetime to understand...

So ends the first chapter of Roxanne Henke's newest title, Learning to Fly. This was an awesome book about the up and downs of being a mom. I absolutely loved this book! I was laughing and crying along with Susan and Lily throughout the entire novel. I would definitely recommend this book to all mothers and all daughters.
The book starts with an evening in the life of Susan Schaffer. She is listening to her empty house now that her daughter has gone off to college. Then the books forwards to the night of Lily's birth. It then continues in quick snips at each year of Lily's life.
During the first year of Lily's life, Susan runs into an old acquitance from high school, Joann Nash; now calling herself JoJo. She has a little girl, Tiffany the same age as Lily. Susan and JoJo are night and day. However because of their bond as mother, they become friends. However Susan and JoJo raise their daughters differently and so you see two different parenting styles and the struggles that come with each.
JoJo is well off, her husband owner of a building company that has built half of the town. Therefore Tiffany can have whatever she wants, her parents can afford it. Because JoJo went from rags to riches, she feels that giving her daughter everything that she wants, will make her life better. Through the course of the book, she realizes that this is not the case at all. I was terribly annoyed with the way that JoJo reared her child. One would definitely call Tiffany a brat. But this is definitely the way that many children grow up today.
Susan, on the other hand, raises Lily with love and not material things. She continually refers to Proverbs 22:6 "Teach a child to choose the right path, and whne he is older, he will remain upon it." She also tries to "Put yourself in her place", advice from her hospital roomie Darla who pops up throughout the book.
Lily must struggle through later years in junior high and high school because of her strict parents. However, you see the definite rewards that Lily recieves by growing up in a loving Christian home.
This was a great story with an emotional storyline that kept you reading. I would definitely recommend this book. Even if you are not a mother, you will find many characters throughout the story that you can relate to. I could go on and on about this story, but I will stop here with a quote from the book and just hope that you will read it yourself to find out more.

Here is a quote from the first chapter of the book.
"It's like parenthood. Yeah, it's like that. You dance and dance, around and aroundn with your child, thinking, most days, Will the music never end? And then in eighteen years that pass like a blink, it does. And you're left standing on the dance floor, arms raised to go on. The music has stopped, your chid is gone, and you realize the dance is over. And you're standing alone."
When I finished the book, I went back and read this first opening chapter and cried my eyes out. How true it is. This book really teaches mothers to enjoy every moment that they can with their child. And makes you realize how time so quickly passes us by.

Also, a town called Brewster is referenced throughout the story and in the back of the book it tells of Roxanne Henke's series Coming Home to Brewster. I hope to read these books soon as well.