The Courage Within

By Paula Hughel

In this book the author describes the situations, the challenges, and how she was able to overcome them through divine support and encouragement. The author shares the one thing that enabled her to face various difficult life challenges and move through them. Her challenges involved something that most people have faced at one time or another in their lives. She shares how it feels when you are in that dark place and do not know where to turn. She wrote this book to help you find your way through any situation you are facing. The author describes how to face and resolve personal challenges. The author describes how she opened her heart, to have faith. Eventually, she realized that there are angels all around us to help you on your journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644718575

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The Courage Within

Paula Hughel

ISBN 978-1-64471-856-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64471-857-5 (Digital)

Copyright © 2019 Paula Hughel

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Dear God, thank you for the angels that helped guide me through my journey. Thank you even more for helping me to recognize who they are and opening my heart to allow them to help, comfort, and guide me.

Introduction

I wrote this book for the sole purpose of helping you to see how God blessed me with his angels to guide me through my difficult times. I hope that it might let you see your angels and give you the courage to change your situation.

Chapter 1

Adolescence

It all began in a small town in Northwest Indiana. I was the last born of six children, and I was not exactly a welcomed arrival. As I was growing up, there was nothing normal about our family, but when you grow up in that kind of an environment, you do not even realize it is not normal. In my early years, things weren’t all that bad. We had heat in the winter, hot water, and food. We lived in a very small house, about two thousand square feet including the unfinished basement, and we were very crowded. Both of my parents worked to try to pay the bills. We did do some normal things as a family. We lived a very humble existence. We always went to church on Sunday together. We had dinners together most of the time. We even had frozen pizza night. We went on simple vacations, and we did other things together. Our vacations were usually one-day trips. We were fortunate to have state parks and interesting places to visit nearby. My older sisters had it much better off than I did because of the things that unfolded in my lifetime. I had no idea what was going to happen, but obviously, they did. One at a time, my siblings left home as soon as they could.

I wore my sister’s old clothes, but I didn’t care. I had no expectations of anything. We didn’t have much money, but our basic needs were being met. We didn’t have money for me to have new clothes. That’s fine, I would rather have food and shelter. We did celebrate holidays. We celebrated birthdays but not like most families. The birthday gift was to pick out the dinner meal. At Thanksgiving, my father received a turkey from his workplace, and we would make a normal Thanksgiving dinner. At Christmas, we decorated the house and put up a Christmas tree. Many nights, I would sleep underneath of it and try to find peace. My favorite decoration was a plastic church that had a broken steeple. When you round it up, it played, Silent Night. It was so comforting for me to know that God was there, watching over me. I was at peace.

Things started getting worse when they moved in my maternal grandmother. She was very ill and refused to be put in a nursing home. They converted what used to be our dining room into a bedroom for her. I don’t remember how long she lived with us, but I remember her dying. Death has a horrible smell. It was just a week before my first communion, so my celebration was my grandmother’s funeral. The only picture I have of my first communion had Proof stamped across the picture.

The church that we belonged to also had an elementary school, which I attended. It was actually run by nuns, and they were very strict. My sister and I had to walk to and from school every day, it was about a mile. They did not have school buses, and both of my parents worked. The nice part was that we started every day by going to mass. I remember a day during school when we were doing spelling, and we were being called on like a spelling game. If you misspelled the word, you were smacked with a ruler on the back of your hand.

Shortly after my grandmother’s death, my oldest sister went off to college. She was one of the few that looked out for me. Her college was less than two hours away, she did visit every now and then. My mother and father were never home except in the evening, so we had to take care of everything at home. We were not allowed to watch the television during the week. We only had one television, and my father controlled it. If we behaved, he might let us watch cartoons Saturday morning.

My father and brother fought all the time. I can’t remember what the fights were about, I just remember them yelling at each other. Most of the arguments took place in the basement,