HOUSE OF FIRE by Elizabeth Di Grazia (Tonga)

House of Fire shows that thirty years of breaking free from a cycle of violence was not enough to prepare Elizabeth Di Grazia for the trials of starting her own family.

Growing up in the 1970s, she suffered repeated sexual abuse, incest, and neglect. Although in the Catholic church, she was forced to have a hushed-up abortion at the age of fourteen. Within a year she was pregnant again, by another brother. Di Grazia gave birth to a son who was quickly taken away and adopted into a family she never knew.

Elizabeth’s story traces her healing and the creation of an intentional family. She and her partner, Jody, adopted two Guatemalan babies. They learned that provision and protection were not enough, but refused to allow denial and secrets to go unexposed became critical.