When We Could Not See the Moon: Our Daughter Locked Away in a Foreign Jail

A family cast in darkness. A daughter in an unimaginable situation. And the guiding light of faith that carried them through.
When Jon and Tracy Willems’ daughter Hanna ventured across the world for what was supposed to be an exciting year of working abroad in Egypt, things quickly took an unexpected turn, and the family found themselves in the middle of a waking nightmare.
Falsely apprehended at customs for suspected drug trafficking, Hanna was placed in an Egyptian jail under unthinkable conditions with no tether to the outside world. As Jon and Tracy struggled to put together the pieces of where their daughter had gone and what horrible fate might await her, Hanna sat thousands of miles away in a crowded and filthy cell. So began Jon and Tracy’s fight for their daughter’s freedom. But they were not alone.
What could have easily been a story of a family’s hardship and terror is instead a story of God’s grace during their most trying days. At its core, When We Could Not See the Moon is about a family cast in darkness amid the unimaginable situation Hanna found herself in. It’s a story of how faith united people across the world and worked through them to provide a guiding light throughout the journey.
Though names, locations, and other key elements have been changed or fictionalized to protect those who worked so fiercely to bring Hanna home, the Willems’ story is otherwise entirely based in fact. Encompassing the perspectives of parents Jon and Tracy Willems, sister Taylor, and Hanna herself, this harrowing true story captures all the defining characteristics of humanity: despair, distrust, and suffering but also faith, hope, compassion, and community. Dynamic and engaging with excerpts from the journal Hanna kept throughout this unbelievable series of events, When We Could Not See the Moon will speak to parents, people of faith, warriors for justice--and anyone who finds themselves lost in the dark, desperately searching for the light.

The real Jon and Tracy live in Idaho, USA. They steadfastly continue to pursue their faith while embracing travel across the world. While both are retired from their respective careers, they remain professionally engaged and enjoy the freedom of controlling their own calendar. The names and locations in this book have been changed to shield and support their daughters in their ongoing healing process from this experience and protect the privacy of all involved.

Savannah Spidalieri is an author, ghostwriter, and publishing director living in central Virginia with her husband and daughter. Savannah studied creative writing and publishing and printing arts at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, and went on to co-found Haunted Waters Press, a publisher of short fiction and poetry. Still working on her own solo debut novel, Savannah enjoys ghostwriting and collaborating with authors who have powerful stories to tell and need someone to help bring them to the page.