"With her characteristic wisdom and grace, Sharon Garlough Brown gives voice to hope in the stories of Hannah, Charissa, Mara and Meg. Their spiritual journeys during Advent are marked by darkness, waiting and even heartbreak. Yet in Brown's honest and tender narrative, their friendship with each other and their openness to God's work in their lives continues to draw them toward light and new life, bearing witness to light in the darkness. To read this book is to learn to hope. In the lives of these four women, Brown reveals a God who calls us beloved even through our tears, who faithfully keeps his promises and who sends a Savior to bring joy to the world. Two Steps Forward offers spiritual insights of the rarest beauty about both the pain and the peace at the 'growing edges' in our life with God. Like Sensible Shoes, this book is a gift and blessing to all who long for Emmanuel."--Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Calvin College, author of Glittering Vices