Book Two
Letters to the Waiting Room
For Every Family Touched by Congenital Heart Disease
The hospital waiting room is one of the loneliest places in the world.
It is where CHD families sit with fear they cannot put into words — waiting for surgical
outcomes, waiting for news, waiting for a future they cannot yet see. Letters to the
Waiting Room walks into that room and sits beside you.
This collection of 14 original letters is addressed directly to the people who live
with congenital heart disease every day: the parents pacing during open-heart surgery,
the CHD survivor learning to carry their diagnosis into adulthood, the sibling who grew
up in the background of someone else's medical crisis, the caregiver who has run out of
words. Each letter is a direct, honest, and deeply personal act of witness.
Not advice. Not a clinical framework. A letter.
Author Adrian Adair — himself immersed in CHD advocacy as the founder of
Heartbeat Forward — writes from a place of genuine closeness to the CHD experience.
These letters do not minimize what CHD families carry. They honor it.
"There are things you have been waiting for someone to say. This book is an attempt
to say them — without flinching, without false comfort, without leaving you alone."
The 14 Letters Are Written To
- The parent whose child is in surgery right now
- The CHD survivor entering adulthood with an unfinished heart
- The family who just received a prenatal CHD diagnosis
- The caregiver who has forgotten how to rest
- The sibling who grew up in the shadow of CHD
- The CHD community mourning someone who did not survive
- The medical team who holds CHD hearts in their hands every day
- And more — a complete, intimate collection for every season of the CHD journey
New CHD Parents
Families who have just heard the words "congenital heart defect" for the first time
CHD Adults
Grown CHD survivors navigating healthcare, identity, and an uncertain future
Bereaved Families
Those who have lost someone to CHD and need their grief witnessed
Support Communities
CHD support groups and hospital chaplains seeking healing reading for families