By: Jenna Frisby
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
Many people heard about Christie and Wesley Werts after they went viral because of their choice to uproot their lives after receiving an unexpected call from Wesley’s ex-sister-in-law.
Wesley’s ex-wife had passed just days after giving birth to a pre-term baby boy. When Wesley told Christie, he already knew they would be making the trip to Texas to get the baby boy.
Christie, having been in foster care herself, did not want to let the infant, Levi, have to face the circumstances of potentially going from home to home in foster care, like she had to as a child.
So, Christie, Wesley, and their blended family sold their home here in Northwest Ohio and headed to Texas. They went through countless hours of trainings, home checks, and appointments just to become licensed foster parents.
After finally getting licensed, they got Levi and after some time, were then able to adopt him into their family and even move back to Northwest Ohio where they call “home” in rural Stryker. But that’s not where the story ends, or even really begins.
Christie has always had the thought in the back of her mind of writing a book, but nothing ever really blossomed from the thought or pushed her to actually accomplish it. Until she and her husband went viral for their choice to adopt Levi.
“When our story went viral, that was kind of the push I needed to really share a little bit more of my background, because most of the articles were about (how) I was a former foster kid.”
Now, she really felt the calling to write. Not only about Levi’s part in their family story, but about her past and her story.
The story that didn’t define her but molded her into who she is, and which ultimately led her to make the choices she did for Levi.
Christie’s book, “Life’s Sad Story God’s Love Story: Transforming a Child’s Adversity into a Tale of Love”, is an autobiography that’s written in such a way to feel personable and intimate.
Like sitting down and having a cup of coffee with Christie yourself, you’ll be able to feel like you’re really there listening to her and having a one-on-one conversation.
She states “My book is different. It’s not written in chapters. I’ve written it in moments, memories, and stories.”
Christie details events in her life from a young age throughout her book. She started the process of writing her autobiography by simply just putting pen to paper.
As she continued writing, she faced reliving some of her most difficult life events in order to convey who she is to her readers. “A few times I had to take emotional breaks because I was revisiting a lot of my childhood.”
“So, I had to sometimes step away for a week or two at a time because I was writing about things that land you in foster care, which are not what normal kids go through.”
As Christie navigated her way back through her past, she recollected the stories ingrained in her memory of her parent’s battling with heroine addictions, and the abuse she faced living in the home she grew up in.
She was almost fifteen when she finally landed in the foster care system after her father’s physical abuse was caught by a public eye one day. From that moment to where she is today has been a long road of forgiveness and healing.
Christie ended up writing her entire book in only about three months. She recollects that it was more daunting to edit her book than it was to actually write it. That process took another three to four months. And now here she is an author with a published book for all to read and access. Christie hopes to be able to publish more books in the near future.
One book she plans to write will be to share further detail about the life of her husband, Wesley, and his perspective of their story, as well as his childhood which also involved watching his parents face addictions.
Another book she wishes to write will be for Levi, to share about adoption so as he grows older, he can understand who he is as well as introduce him to that part of his story.
Levi is two now so Christie hopes to write “something along the lines that introduces a child to adoption (that) you can start reading at around age three or so.”
She shares that they have always been open with Levi and sharing his story with him. He’s just too little to understand at this moment.
Which is a driving force for her to write a book that can be shared over and over again with him, and hopefully help other children as well with their own adoption journey’s.
Christie describes her book as one “about resilience and the human spirit and how far we’ll go for people we love”. She uses the example of a broken vase.
That it can be placed back together and held together by glue, but it will always have those cracks in it.
“Life is going to sometimes hand you things or you’ll go through dark times, bad times, but it doesn’t have to define who you are and the direction you go.” Christie’s life has defiantly been proof of exactly that.
Christie Werts’ story is one of trials, adversity, and tragedy but she refused to be defined by her circumstances. She has chosen to turn her tragedy into triumph in the way she lives her life.
Being the wife she is, the mom she has chosen to be, and the person she strives to be every day she wakes up: kind and compassionate.
Christie’s book “Life’s Sad Story God’s Love Story: Transforming a Child’s Adversity into a Tale of Love” will be released on Monday, April 15th. You can purchase her 218-page book for $19.99 on Amazon, Kindle, and any other major book retailer.