Loving Harder

Nadya was nine years old when Lori and Karl Hetzel rescued her from an orphanage deep within Siberia. With little grasp of language and no experience of life outside the Russian adoption system, Nadya suffered from severe neglect and trauma, and was later diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Though Lori and Karl went into her adoption educated to the challenges they might face, Nadya’s cognitive delays were far more severe than they expected. The Hetzel family—including two biological sons and a daughter adopted from Kazakhstan—struggled for years through a lonely maze of rages, emergency hospitalizations, and terror before seeing any relief. In Loving Harder, Lori fearlessly tells the story of her darkest days in order to give hope to other struggling families, doing so with knowledge, grace, humor, and love. For those struggling to love harder, regardless of the cause, this book is the answer to a prayer.