Doyle and Stephanie Ballard are not your average couple—and this is not your average story.

What Tried to Break Us—and What Didn’t is a raw, unfiltered journey through the kind of fire that doesn’t just burn—it brands. From multiple life-altering surgeries that left more than physical scars, to the sting of betrayal that left them breathless, their story is laced with the kind of pain most people would run from. And yet, they stayed. They fought. And they found something sacred in the wreckage.

Their interracial marriage, forged in faith, grit, and relentless honesty, has weathered storms that could have easily pulled them apart. Instead, it revealed truths about love, pride, and mercy that don’t show up in polished sermons or picture-perfect lives.

They’ve learned the hard way that mercy isn’t always tender—it often shows up disguised as rock bottom. That pride doesn’t always look like arrogance—sometimes it hides behind religion. And that healing doesn’t arrive on angel wings—it walks in wearing work boots, ready to dig.

They’ve wrestled with God, with themselves, with each other. But they didn’t just survive. They rebuilt—with truth, grace, and the kind of scars that now speak of endurance, not shame.

This isn’t just a memoir. It’s a declaration—for anyone who’s ever questioned love, cursed God, or clawed their way back from the edge. It’s a story for outsiders, survivors, and truth-seekers ready to face the fire and come out changed.

With brutal honesty, holy defiance, and more grace than they sometimes knew what to do with, Doyle and Stephanie invite you into the sacred, messy places where real transformation doesn’t just happen—it demands everything.

Doyle Ballard

Audiobooks