Karis: All I See Is Grace

Her famous smile brightened everyone's lives. What was this sparkling young woman's secret to joy in the face of a painful, repeatedly life-threatening disability? Karis Kornfield trusted in God's plan. Made bold by a prophecy and promise she received as a teen, Karis lived exuberantly. Her love for people manifested in endless compassion. Miracle after miracle preserved her life until in God's time, she danced into heaven, her brilliant smile her last communication with her mom.

Debra Kornfield wrestled with the finality of Karis's passing. Through a phenomenal thirty years, she had fought the odds and loved her child. Unexpectedly uncovering decades worth of the vibrant young woman's journals she discovered Karis's powerful words - "All I see is grace."

In an account both heartbreaking and uplifting, Debra Kornfield bravely shares her own and her fiercely cherished daughter's dual journeys. Selections from Karis's personal diaries and poetry offer others experiencing hardship and loss the aroma of hope. Karis is a soul-changing memoir overflowing with courage. If you like insightful female mentors, abundance blooming from struggle, and finding the good in any circumstance, then you'll adore how Debra Kornfield reveals her daughter's heart-healing truths.

Let Karis surprise you today with grace!

The fourth of eight children of missionaries to a remote village of Guatemala, Debra Kornfield faced profound city shock when she moved with her husband David and four small children to the megalopolis of So Paulo, Brazil in 1990. This was her home for fourteen years until she moved to Pittsburgh in 2004 to support their daughter Karis through intestinal transplant, never dreaming that over the next fourteen years, Pittsburgh would become home.
Debra is a nurse with a graduate degree in family counseling. She published three books in Brazil, one of them a groundbreaking book on care for survivors of childhood sexual abuse. She loves hiking, playing with her grandson, cultivating Kariss Friendship Garden, teaching Scripture and counseling in three languages, writing, and traveling with Dave to the ten Latin American countries where they now work. She enjoys writing for and reading the stories people send for her blog, https: //ButGod.blog, and is delighted that biweekly chats keep her in touch with her seven siblings.
Debra met her husband Dave as a freshman at Wheaton College, where she earned a B.A. in English Literature. Dave helped put her through Rush University, where she received her B.S. in Nursing the same month he was awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. In 1988, two weeks before their fourth child was born, David and Debra joined One Challenge International. They live in Pittsburgh, but travel frequently to Latin America and West Africa for their mission work with OCI.