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Kimberley Woodhouse was a storyteller long before she was a published author, scribbling on papers late into the night while she stayed up with sick babies.

“I didn’t tell anyone,” Kimberley said. “Not even my husband.” After all, she was already a musician, and musicians are strange enough. The last thing her husband needed was to know he’d married a writer!

Hidden Treasures

Of course, secrets never stay secret. Several years later, during the process of moving, a dear friend came over to help and discovered Kimberley’s drawer of stories.

“She was supposed to be helping me pack,” Kimberley said. “My friend picked up that huge stack of papers and literally clobbered me over the head with them. She told me I was hiding my light under a bushel and had better do something about it.”

But how could Kimberley pursue a writing career? She was a musician, not a professional author. She wouldn’t even know where to start. Her friend, however, wouldn’t hear her objections. In fact, her friend had some hard-hitting truth to share. “She reminded me that I had no trouble performing in front of thousands,” Kimberley said. “Because of my training and life of musical competitions, I was comfortable in that arena. But I’d come to rely on that comfort—that experience.” Kimberley had earned a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music, although God led her to attend a different college. A musical prodigy, she’d graduated high school at 15 and had her pick of the highest-rated music schools in the nation. She’d practiced for hours each day, practiced her lines for theater, practiced her performances, but she didn’t know the first thing about writing.

Her friend suggested maybe that was exactly the point. If she had to trust God for every step of the process, perhaps He would do something in her life bigger than she could imagine.

“Writing a book would mean I’d have to completely rely on God, not myself,” she said. “It changed my perspective on ministry as a whole.”

So Kimberley kept writing.

“I had stuff out that was at pub boards,” she said. “I had books getting looked at, but nothing had been picked up yet.”

An Unexpected Turn

In the midst of the journey from musician to mom to aspiring author, the Woodhouse family’s lives took a surprising turn with the birth of their daughter Kayla.

One of only a few dozen cases in the entire world, Kayla was born with HSAN (Hereditary Sensory Autonomic Neuropathy), a rare nerve disorder that limits her ability to feel pain and regulate her body temperature.

Once they were able to find a doctor who could even give them a diagnosis, there were no real answers. But Kimberley and her family have always held tight to the truth of the Bible, finding comfort, joy, and grace when they needed it. And, oddly enough, even though the Woodhouse family had experienced more than their fair share of trouble by this point in their lives, their story was only just beginning.

“I’d been speaking around the country since my daughter was born,” Kimberley said. “My husband is a pastor, and churches knew I was a musician. So they would ask me to come and share our story.”

His Miracle in the Making

As Kimberley traveled and spoke about her daughter, the people who listened were so moved that they did something no one expected.

“One day I got an email from a television show called Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” Kimberley said. “I thought it was spam.”

It wasn’t.

Throughout the years, as Kimberley had been sharing their story, people all over the country had been nominating their family for the show.

“We had no idea,” Kimberley said. “We found out that we had more nominations than any other family in the show’s history.”

God orchestrated every moment of the Woodhouses’ experience with the Extreme Makeover television show. Their home was built in fall 2007.

When their episode aired, she received more than 100,000 emails the next day. Of all of those emails, around 8,000 of them asked the same question: “There’s something different about your family. What is it?”

Because time was short, the show edited out most of Kimberley and her family’s references to God throughout the episode, but God’s light still shone through them strongly enough to capture the hearts of the entire audience.

“People were fascinated with the story,” Kimberley said, “because they saw what massive struggles we went through and yet we were still joyful. And we were still together as a family.”

The story didn’t stop there, though.

Staying True to His Story

“The episode came out,” Kimberley said, “and 15 million people watched it the first time on a Sunday. The following Wednesday, all the big publishers called me. They all wanted me to tell our story.”

There was just one problem.

“Each one of them wanted me—in essence—to take God out of the story,” Kimberley said. “I was surprised how easy it was to tell all of them no. I said no five times in one day. I told them that they just didn’t get it. God is the story.”

Even Greater Things

Even though Kimberley said no to the big New York publishers, God had a plan for her author career.

“A few days later, I had a call from the lady who would become my agent,” Kimberley said.

Since then, as a best-selling author of contemporary and historical fiction, nonfiction, and devotionals, Kimberley has won multiple awards, such as the Carol Award and the Holt Medallion. What’s more, in 2024 she will release book number 40.

“I want to point those who don’t know the truth to God,” Kimberley said, “and I want to challenge believers to walk with Christ.”

God’s plans for Kimberley and her family didn’t make sense at first, but in His timing, He put all the pieces together. He worked out His plans for their lives, just as He promises in His Word.

“Our story is all about God’s joy, no matter what,” Kimberley said. “Would I have ever signed up for it had I known the hardships that were coming? No. Not a chance. But it’s beautiful to see what God has done through His story.”