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Heather Kopp  

Recovering Alcoholic Guided by Her Christian Faith, Sober Boots blogger

Heather Kopp is the author of Sober Mercies: How Love Caught Up with a Christian Drunk. On her popular blog, Sober Boots, she writes frequently about life in recovery and “the intersection of addiction and grace.”

As a long-time Christian, Kopp never expected to become an out-of-control alcoholic who kept private stashes of booze all over the place—tucked behind books in her study, zipped into a special compartment in her oversized purse, and stuffed inside her boots.

As her alcoholism spiraled, during the day she wrote books about God and prayer and family. At night she’d locked herself in her bathroom to guzzle chardonnay. Even as her career and marriage teetered on the brink, she couldn’t get a grip, desperately hiding the true extent of her drinking from the rest of the world—her husband included.

For her, as for many Christians who struggle with addiction, overwhelming shame and confusion only made things worse. She found herself buried in questions: Why wasn’t her faith enough to save her? Why didn’t repentance, Bible reading and prayer work? Where was God?

Meanwhile, as Kopp watched in horror, her grown son descended into his own nightmare of drugs and alcohol. She feared for his life, yet she couldn’t stop drinking long enough to help him—or find a way out for herself.

Until the day everything changed.

In her writing and speaking, Kopp is engaging, funny and bracingly honest as she shares her remarkable journey into darkness…and back to the light again. Her story reveals the unique challenges and spiritual conundrums Christians face when they become ensnared in an addiction, and the redemption that’s possible when we finally reach the end of ourselves.

Kopp loves novels, yoga, hiking, recovery meetings, spending quality time with her family and having spiritually stimulating discussions with people from all walks of life and faith. She and her husband have five grown children and make their home in Colorado Springs, CO.

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