― Marissa Miller

I absolutely love Bella Grace! It honestly helped through one of the darkest places in my life. I discovered it randomly at Books-a-Million one day, and it immediately caught my attention with the cardstock-esque paper and the beautiful photography. But, I discovered even more beautiful prose, poetry, and women who weren’t afraid of sharing their dark places either. I was halfway through my first year of marriage, living no where near family, and having a hard time making friends even though I was continually putting myself out there. My husband was working over 60 hours a week as a pastor at a local church, and I was utterly alone and desperate for someone to just connect with. Upon purchasing the winter edition of Bella Grace, it was clear that even never having personally met these writers and women who contributed to the magazine, I felt connected. I had something to just sit, breathe, and work through the hurt that was scarring my heart, which at this point felt war torn and beat down. Though it’s been a long road medically, as I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety and insomnia a month later, and emotionally with learning the ropes of marriage, I can honestly say, Bella Grace helped me see hope and light even in the dark hours, sleepless nights. And as my husband and I just celebrated our one year (yay!), we are in a much better place now than I thought possible. We aren’t perfect, and hopefully we never are, I’ve come to appreciate the hard times, and dark times. Because as I’ve been so beautifully reminded by Bella Grace, it is not the end no matter where you are or what you are going through. And now, I appreciate even the most normal of days, because I am reminded of how far we’ve come even in that short amount of time, and what a blessing it is to even have the
“normal” days.