Seeking Solace
Finding Joy After Loss
Life in the United Arab Emirates brings many ups and downs.
Book Summary
Seeking Solace
Life in the United Arab Emirates brings many ups and downs. Amy, an American, married to an Arab, is pregnant with twins. But during her twenty-week check-up, Amy learns she has lost one of her precious babies. Suddenly she is hospitalized with pre-eclampsia and fighting for her and her second twin’s life.
She learns the fate of that baby while she is alone—more loss. Just as life settles down, her beloved father is diagnosed with two stage-four cancers. Will she make it home in time to see her father one last time? How does Amy cope with these fears and devastating losses in the United Arab Emirates?
This memoir, written in devotional format, testifies to a loving Father who never once abandons His daughter to cope alone in a foreign country. Seeking Solace centers on relationships and the complex and often messy emotions that accompany the many facets of loss. Discover truth, gratitude, and a growing awareness of God’s presence. Then wrap yourself in the solace of God’s reassuring comfort.
What readers say about the book🧐
Author Amy Bovaird doesn’t appear to be a very large woman, and she admits to having failing sight. Yet, as her recent memoir/devotional proclaims, she “roars with the faith of a lion.” I agree with that assessment as I read Seeking Solace: Finding Joy after Loss (2018), a book I read in just one day at three sittings. Written with such raw emotion and fervent zeal, I just couldn’t put this book down.Part memoir, part devotional, Bovaird takes the reader along on her tumultuous journey as she refuses to become a victim, striving for victory after each loss. In a story set mostly in the Middle East, her losses accumulate as the narrative unfolds: a rocky marriage, the loss of twins, a miscarriage. Yet even in her darkest moments, the nadir of her soul, she finds joy in knowing her Savior.Various vignettes show the author’s search for beauty in the midst of crises: the bounty on a mulberry tree, even the message in an “ear” seashell. Readers will also find scriptural references that fed the author’s soul during lean times. These can be adapted to one’s own meditation time.Near the conclusion, Bovaird reveals that she wrote this book to answer the question that surfaces often during her speaking engagements: “How do you face each day with joy and confidence when I’m losing more vision all the time?” Readers will marvel at how Amy Bovaird answers this question, which includes focusing on gratitude and other amazing gifts from God.
Marian Beaman
About the Author
Amy L. Bovaird
Amy L. Bovaird is an Award-Winning Christian Writer, Author, and Memoirist who writes about mobility and sight loss disabilities using humor and enjoys writing about international travel and adventure as well as faith-inspired devotionals. Ms. Bovaird has five published titles to her credit, with the newest titled ‘A Time to Dance: Finding Joy After Child Loss.’ Her books are available on Amazon Books, Kindle, and fine online bookstores.
She Received the “Medal of Honor in Literature” for her first memoir, Mobility Matters: Stepping Out in Faith, from Ohio Valley University in 2016. Her second memoir, ‘Cane Confessions: The Lighter Side of Mobility,’ and her third memoir devotional, ‘Seeking Solace: Finding Joy After Loss,’ reached No. 1 Bestseller status in various categories, including Biographies and Memoirs, Eye Problems, Grief and Dying, and Spiritual Healing. In March 2020, she released ‘Hitting A Home Run: Blind and Thriving,’ which also Hit #1 on Amazon for fun short travel reads.
Amy was diagnosed at age 28 with Retinitis Pigmentosa and was declared legally blind. She had worked as a specialist in second language acquisition for nearly 30 years. Her career took her to Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Amy now views life as a personal adventure and has traded her overseas experiences for an everyday adventure into blindness. Amy is a member of Vision Aware as a Peer Advisor Life Support through their (PALS) Program.
Ms. Bovaird earned her M.A. in Bicultural – Bilingual Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio and is a lifelong learner about vision, writing, or language-related. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, she continues to educate and entertains her readers with humorous anecdotes of coping with ongoing vision loss; more importantly, she shares the lessons God reveals to her through her difficulties. When she is not writing, she negotiates for the upper hand with her cat, Sophie Socks and on most occasions fails to win at it. Today, Amy still resides in Northwest, Pennsylvania.