(Coming Home Series Prequel) A distressing diagnosis A retreating husband A prodigal brother Debbie Verhoeven is not your typical woman: \*She sacrificed a counseling career to be a full-time mother \*She’d rather pound a nail than round steak \*Oprah? No way! Give her ESPN any day \*Nothing could be more stressful than scrapbooking Nothing, except … a distressing diagnosis, a husband who is pulling away, and two older brothers who refuse to get along When the counselor is caught in the middle, when she needs to be strong for those around her, who is left to be strong for her?

Manhattan businessman Richard Brooks was at the top of the world, drunk with success, wealth, and women, and he proudly lived that prodigal lifestyle, until one disastrous evening, when that world came crashing down. Richard flees to Minneapolis where he repairs ancient boilers instead of solving corporate problems, and he's determined to live the solitary life he now deserves. But Executive Sheila Peterson has other plans for the handsome custodian. Richard appears to be the perfect match for the no-strings-attached romance she's after, but she soon discovers that he's hiding more than the designer clothes in his closet.

Newlyweds Richard and Sheila Brooks have it all. Sheila is pregnant. Richard’s business is flourishing. Their formerly broken lives have been mended, and life couldn’t be better. Or so they thought. Just a few years ago, Richard had thrived in Manhattan’s fast-paced business world, yet that’s the very place he abandoned his faith. Now that his faith is restored, he never planned to return to that old life. But then the New York corporation that once rejected him calls, begging him to come back. Richard knows returning is unwise, but his gut is telling him to go. Sheila yearns to have something from her childhood to pass on to her child, but when her parents abandoned her years ago, they took all remnants of her past with them. Then, out of the blue, her aging father calls, asking to be let back into her life. Her head screams “no”, but her traitorous heart is saying “yes.” If Richard and Sheila answer these calls from their pasts, will they risk breaking what they’ve spent so much time mending?

After a troubling encounter with a pregnant teen, Sheila Peterson-Brooks hurries from the crisis pregnancy center into the frigid Minnesota winter where she is mugged and left for dead. After a frantic search, Richard, her husband, finds her, and the police quickly nab the mugger … A hungry, homeless teen. The brother of the pregnant girl Sheila had just counseled. The girl pleads for her brother, and Sheila and Richard choose not to press charges. Instead, they open their home to the boy, a move that could cost them their possessions, and their hearts. And, in the process, teach them the true meaning of home.