Hope Has a Seat in Every Waiting Room
by Karen Kay Smith
A compassionate reminder that waiting is not empty, God has not stepped away, and hope can remain—even here.
Coming SoonAbout the book
Some seasons of life leave us living between questions and answers. A diagnosis changes everything. Grief settles into ordinary days. Caregiving becomes a way of life. The future feels uncertain, yet the rest of the world keeps moving.
In Hope Has a Seat in Every Waiting Room, Karen Kay Smith draws from fifteen years of caring for her husband through primary progressive multiple sclerosis and the many waiting rooms they shared along the way. Through honest stories, Scripture, and compassionate guidance, she offers readers the companionship she once needed—without quick answers, forced optimism, or pressure to make sense of the hard before they are ready.
This book helps readers name the emotions that surface in uncertain seasons, recognize God’s presence when faith feels quiet, communicate their needs more clearly, and allow safe community to share the weight.
At the end of every chapter, Pause, Presence, and Permission invites readers to move gently from reading into reflection:
Pause creates space to slow down and notice what they are carrying.
Presence offers simple prayers, reflections, and creative practices that help them remain present with themselves, with God, and with the moment before them.
Permission releases them from the pressure to perform, rush their healing, or pretend they are fine.
Hope Has a Seat in Every Waiting Room is not a promise that every waiting season will resolve neatly. It is a compassionate reminder that waiting is not empty, God has not stepped away, and hope can remain—even here.
A Word from the Foreword
Dr. Christopher LaGanke
I had the honor and privilege of traveling alongside Karen, Zine, and the rest of their family through an incredibly complex medical, physical, emotional, and spiritual journey. Yes, I am a physician who was blessed to have had access to this naturally imperfect family in their real journey, but I am also a son who was a part of an imperfect family that ran its journey entwined with the same monstrous condition. Although many aspects of medical care have changed in the near half century between these two journeys, Hope Has a Seat in Every Waiting Room beautifully captures the timeless emotional and spiritual realities that exist in the waiting places of our lives. People will come and go through these places, but as Karen highlights in her book, God always abides in those spaces. In the waiting rooms of these journeys, where there is an intermingling of real pain and natural beauty, love is shone like that on a cross.
This book captures the physical and emotional endurance required of, and experienced by, patients and their loved ones who share the rollercoaster ride of life with a chronic unpredictable medical condition. In this setting, many health care providers are unaware of all the complexities endured by families embroiled in the real challenges of time allocation, pain, suffering, sadness, loss, fatigue, financial obligations, etc. I firmly believe that Karen’s unique personal perspective of her family’s odyssey will provide opportunities for families and healthcare providers alike to work through deep personal feelings and find spiritual comfort.
—Dr. Christopher LaGanke, MD, is Founder of North Central Neurology Associates in Cullman, Alabama, a leading center for clinical trials in new multiple sclerosis medications.
Endorsements
“Hope Has a Seat in Every Waiting Room invites us into the sacred and hushed spaces where sacrificial caregiving, lengthy waiting, and weighty diagnoses meld together—an unknown future alongside a known and present God. As a fellow caregiver, I felt seen by Smith’s words and deeply resonated with these waiting spaces and the slow, steady transformation God did within Smith through her experiences. This book is for every caregiver and for anyone finding themselves in the painful and weary waiting rooms of life. As Smith shares her personal story and inner transformation, you will feel seen and understood and gently guided toward truth, growth, and prayerful hope in your own story. Each page of this book has love, hope, and sacred presence woven throughout. You can finally exhale in the waiting because you won’t be waiting alone anymore.”
“With true grit and grace, Karen Smith gives meaning to our own struggle and grief when faced with a terminal diagnosis. This book is one part story, one part inspiration, and one part practical life application. Her easy and honest writing weaves together her experience of walking her terminally ill husband into eternity with figuring out how to still keep the family going and the house liveable. It will have you turning pages late into the night as you glean breath prayers; art ideas; truths to ponder; and simple, actionable next steps. As I read this book, I found myself holding on to each word like a lifeline. Her discovery that you don’t have to be isolated, even if you are hospital bound with a loved one, is a game changer. The truth is that in these times, connection with others will not usually happen organically but can be cultivated through a simple invitation in the hospital cafeteria, waiting room, or wherever you find yourself. Thank you, Karen, for using what was in your hands to make a path for the rest of us. This book should be a must read for anyone who is a caregiver to a terminally ill person.”
“I have watched Karen walk through the very kind of waiting she writes about in this book. Hope Has a Seat in Every Waiting Room is born from real pain and deep faith. Karen has a gift for helping people slow down long enough to notice God in the middle of uncertainty. She gives words to what many people feel but struggle to say. Then, she gently points them back toward connection with our Creator. This book will mean a lot to anyone carrying pain they never planned for. It reminds us that even in the waiting room, God is near and hope still has a seat.”
Be the First to Know
Sign up to hear the moment Hope Has a Seat in Every Waiting Room is available.