From tragedy to triumph and from engineer to empowering, April Joy Ford’s story brings hope and inspiration to all.
 

Being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and becoming a widowed parent at 32-years old, April Joy has shared her story as a best-selling Author, Speaker and Advocate.

Her experiences and God given gifts is what makes her unique. From the childhood sexual abuse that started at the age of 9 and resulting in a pregnancy at 16, to becoming a widowed single parent of a 4 and 5 year old, her resiliency and unshakable faith brings hope to all. She has been featured on national TV and radio, hosted radio shows herself, spoken at events and has taught/facilitated workshops and retreats.

She currently lives in Orange County, Ca. with her two children Anaya and Allen after leaving her family in Northern California and a successful corporate career as a Senior Engineer with Intel Corporation to follow her faith in 2014. Two years later in 2016 God answered one of her prayers. Even though it took over 20-years of praying and waiting, she is blessed with a miracle encounter with her son that she gave up for adoption at 16 years old. Then in 2017 God spoke to her while sitting in a church service about his Boaz promise.
 

April Joy loves leading for the women’s ministry/bible study, youth life group and cooking for the meal’s ministry at her home church, Saddleback Rancho Capistrano.

She also works part-time for a local foster group home agency as mental health worker/direct care staff. She still finds time to continually building her non-profit Joy’s G.I.F.T. that she founded in 2014. Joy’s G.I.F.T. created a holistic recovery and restoration program for trauma survivors of sexual abuse. This ‘Breakthrough The Barriers’ program is utilized state wide for training on; trauma informed care, holistic wellness and self-care. Her dream is to create the most advanced faith based retreat of the 21st century that promotes healing using world-class amenities along with integrative and holistic modalities.
 

When she’s not writing or reading, her other passions include traveling, cooking, fitness and listening to music.