The Mother in the Mirror: For Every Mom Who Has Ever Wondered, "Am I Good Enough?"

She got exactly what she prayed for.

Nobody warned her how hard it would be.

Andrea Polnaszek wanted to be a mother for as long as she could remember. She babysat. She nannied. She prayed. And then one ordinary morning, standing at the bathroom sink with three children on the other side of the door, she looked up from the exact life she had asked God for and thought, "That is the most unconvincing smile I've ever seen."

Three thousand years earlier, a woman named Hannah wanted a child so badly she prayed until the priest assumed she was drunk. She got her son. Then she gave him back.

Andrea found her own story inside Hannah's-the longing, the rivalry, the exhaustion, the strange grief of getting what you asked for-and traced it through forty years of her own journals. One word repeated across the decades: exhausted.

You'll find your reflection somewhere in these pages, and you'll find the hope it took Andrea years to reach. Yes, the frustration is real. But so is the God who has been arranging your story since long before you had children to raise.

Look up. The woman in the mirror is stronger than she thinks!

Andrea M. Polnaszek, LCSW, is an author, screenwriter, and licensed clinical social worker. She is the author of the Elijah Project series and lives in Wisconsin with her husband, Perry, and their three children.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Freiling Agency, LLC
Published: 10/01/2026
ISBN: 9798952847040
Pages: 146
Weight: 0.39lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.34d