Waking Up in Heaven: A True Story of Brokenness, Heaven, and Life Again

An inspirational memoir of near-death experience, rebirth, divine mercy, and finding faith.

On December 10, 2009, McVea, a thirty-two-year-old mother of four, went to the hospital for a routine procedure. While undergoing treatment, her face suddenly turned a dark shade of blue, then black. Her mother screamed for help, and a nurse tried to revive her…to no avail.

Today, Crystal does not remember what happened in that hospital room during the nine minutes she was unconscious and unable to breathe on her own. She has no memory of the panic and the rushing nurses and the loud cries of “Code Blue.”

She only remembers drifting off…and waking up in heaven.

This unexpected meeting of a self-described sinner and skeptic with her God changed everything. Raised Christian, she had left her faith behind after childhood abuse and the subsequent struggles and suffering of her troubled teens and early adulthood. She longed to believe but felt abandoned, broken, and undeserving.

A moving autobiographical testament to the power of divine love and forgiveness, Waking Up in Heaven shares the message of hope, healing, and compassion McVea brought back from her brush with God.

This brave, honest account of years lost to shame and guilt will inspire those who’ve stumbled along their own spiritual journey, with the uplifting reminder that no one is beyond the reach of grace and redemption, and that, in the words of the author, “God is real. Heaven is real. And God’s love for us is the realest thing of all.”

• Rush of Heaven: One Woman’s Miraculous Encounter with Jesus
• Chasing Heaven: What Dying Taught Me about Living
• The Color of Rain: How Two Families Found Faith, Hope, and Love in the Midst of Tragedy
• My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life
• Appointments with Heaven: The True Story of a Country Doctor's Healing Encounters with the Hereafter
• Heaven Is a Breath Away: An Unexpected Journey to Heaven and Back: An Unexpected Journey to Heaven and Back
• I Am Hutterite: The Fascinating True Story of a Young Woman's Journey to Reclaim Her Heritage
• Clinically Dead - I've seen Heaven and Hell
• Saved by the Light: The True Story of a Man Who Died Twice and the Profound Revelations He Received
• An Army in Heaven