Testing expectations of motherhood and faith, this haunting and breathtakingly-honest depiction of the transformation of a family through the mystery of gender questioning and identity is a dual story of awakening: of the heart of a mother towards her transgendered child, and of the child’s awakening to his, her, their fluidity of gender.

FOR YEARS, HER SON KEPT A SECRET. A BIG SECRET.

The bombshell, delivered shortly after he left for college, left author C.A. Gibbs questioning everything. What was real? Was she being a good parent? Through fear, anxiety, faith, loss, and grief, Gibbs shares the remarkable experiences triggered by the discovery that her adult child isn’t-and maybe hasn’t ever been-the person she thought.

In The Picture Wall: One Woman’s Story of Being His Her Their Mother, Gibbs lifts the curtain on life with a child who lives outside societal norms and expectations.

From her earliest desire of wanting nothing more than to be a mother, to facing her own life-and-death medical diagnosis before it was safe to get pregnant, to the self-doubt and push-back from others when she expressed concern over her toddler’s development, Gibbs finally comes to terms with the fact that the picture-perfect life displayed in her scrapbooks and on her family picture wall wasn’t reality.

At least it wasn’t the full picture.

The Picture Wall: One Woman’s Story of Being His Her Their Mother takes us on an intimate and emotional journey toward healing as Gibbs comes to terms with raising an autistic child, parenting a transgender adult child, telling family a child is transgender, letting go as children grow up to live authentic lives on their own terms, and embracing being empty nesters.