In 1970s Cincinnati, Kim's overwhelmed, financially stressed parents dragged her and her four younger siblings into swimming-starting with a nearby motel pool-as a way to keep them occupied and out of their way. When Kim was eleven, they began leaving the kids at home with a sitter while they traveled the Midwest, where they sold imported wooden ornaments from their motorhome. But when Kim's six-year-old brother crashed his new Cheater Slick bike and the babysitter deserted the children, what started as an accident became a pattern: Mom and Dad leaving for weeks at a time and the kids wrestling with life's emergencies on their own. As Kim coped in the role of fill-in mother while dealing with the stresses of elite swimming, she struggled to shape her own life. She eventually found strength, competence and achievement through swimming-and became the second female swimmer to win a full ride to the University of Southern California, where she earned two national titles. Swimming for My Life is a peek into the dark side of elite swimming as well as a tale of family bonds, reconciling with the past, and how it is possible to emerge from life's toxic and lifesaving waters.

Has someone in your life--someone who was supposed to love you and protect you--did they hurt you instead? Do you ever wonder why these bad things happened to you? Why would God, who supposedly loves everyone, put you through such a painful ordeal? Whenever someone with hurts like yours came to my medical clinic, I asked myself that question. I thought, how can God's love even begin to make sense to a person who has no real evidence--no proof that God cares? And yet I know that God does love you. So I asked God to show me why he let you suffer so much. This little book contains the answer I got in response to my prayers. What I discovered may seem hard to believe. But this is what I found out: your pain--your personal, individual nightmare--is part of God's plan to save the world.

This book is a message of hope for people who feel like giving up. These pages contain real encouragement for anyone who feels like a loser in the most important game of all, the game of life. Are you free falling? Have you have jumped out of the plane and discovered to your horror that you have a defective parachute? Have you looked in the mirror and found yourself startled by the reflection of a failure staring back at you? I have good news. Failure is a great place to start over from Would you like to get to know the Person who wrote the rules to the game of life? This guide is called, Free Falling Into the Right Hands because when we land in the right hands, the hands of our loving Creator, we find the true source of the happiness we were seeking when we took that daring leap out of the plane. Don't give up on yourself. It's never too late. You are not too far gone. No matter who you are, no matter what you have done, the door to your real home is standing wide open, and Someone is waiting for you to come home. This book is available for purchase on line at www.authorhouse.com, www.amazon.com, and www.barnesandnoble.com.