Stepping into Sunlight by Sharon Hinck

Stand alone novel

Summary: 

One tragic event. One project of healing. One step toward hope. 

Penny Sullivan is ready to face the challenge of a cross-country move and caring for her energetic seven-year-old son while her husband leaves on his first deployment as a Navy chaplain. But after she witnesses a shocking crime, her world tips sideways. 

Hiding in her closet isn't an option when her husband and son depend on her, so she fights to recover. But even simple tasks such as filling her car with gas, buying groceries, and returning phone calls are suddenly more than she can handle. 

Help comes in funny packages--a temperamental DVD, a man who hoards gum wrappers, a meddlesome neighbor, and a small yellow notebook in which Penny scribbles down her recovery plan: Do one kind thing for another person every day. The results are sometimes beautiful, sometimes heartbreaking, and often lead to mroe than she ever could have imagined....

A story for every woman who has wondered where God is when life hurts. 

Opening Lines: 

Terror in the supermarket. It sounded like a ridiculous headline from one of the tabloids on the rack near the checkout lane. Yet the only name for the pounding in my chest was that melodramatic word. Terror.