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WELCOME READERS and FRIENDS! ✨📚😺

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I am so happy and honored to be working with and welcoming a new amazing author and prolific writer to our reading den family!  Please meet Ms. Amy L. Bovaird.  Amy is an exceptional author, writer, advocate, speaker, and coach who resides in PA.  And since this Cat is a bit speechless, I will let Amy share a little of her story in her words with all of you!

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“When I was 28, doctors diagnosed me with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP)–a degenerative eye-disease resulting in blindness.  Later, I learned that diagnosis was part of an even rarer disorder called Usher Syndrome, the leading cause of deafblindness. I was losing both.

Always drawn to foreign cultures, I taught English as a Second Language (ESL). I also wrote avidly about my experiences in Latin America, the Far East, and the Middle East. I never dreamed God was honing my skills and preparing me to educate others about vision loss when I could no longer teach in the classroom.

Today I am an author, blogger, speaker, and continue to educate others through my books and talks in spite of my vision and hearing loss.  I’m a Low Vision Motivator with High Expectations. While I feature other cultures in my writing, I also focus on how God has taken my life on adventures of faith through my losses right here at home. I speak about a bright future no matter how dark it physically becomes.”

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MORE ABOUT AMY BOVAIRD ~ STEADFAST IN HER FAITH

I am a born-again Christian delighting in and claiming God’s promises!

I grew up worshiping in a non-denominational church in Erie, Pennsylvania. At age 12, I was baptized. Every summer, my sister and I attended Camp Agape, a wonderful church camp in New York.  Even with all this exposure to Jesus, my relationship with Him wasn’t an integral part of my identity. In other words, my faith was still only part of who I was.

But it was a big enough part that I chose to study in a Christian environment–Ohio Valley University. In my junior year, I transferred to a sister college, Oklahoma Christian University. There I found my calling, to teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). My plan was to support myself as a teacher so I could enter the mission field.

After three years of living abroad, I came back to the United States and went to the eye doctor. My intention was to get a stronger prescription for my glasses. Instead,  I learned I had an incurable hereditary vision disorder called Retinitis Pigmentosa and was told I would go blind. After intense communication with God, my faith began to deepen and I chose to continue to teach abroad.

God blessed me for several years.  My teaching career took me to Colombia, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Japan, Egypt, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates. I was thrilled to live and travel in such diverse cultures, to learn new languages and also share God’s word.

I taught in private schools,  language institutes, colleges, and military language programs and worked with churches in the area. I cherished the variety of people I worshiped with around the world and the churches that helped me grow.

After the loss of twins and an unsuccessful marriage, I clung even more to God’s word. In 2006, I noticed difficulty in my hearing.  In 2009, in addition to learning how to use a white cane, I discovered I could have Usher Syndrome, the leading cause of deaf-blindness in the world.  Coping with hearing loss is challenging but God remains faithful.  As I lose more physical vision, God heightens my spiritual vision. He ministers to me all the time.

I’m proud to be the woman I am today–adventuresome, optimistic and passionate about God’s love.

God has such a sense of humor! It always makes me laugh when I think about how He let me–a map-challenged young woman losing her vision–loose on the world.  In Sept 2012, I  gave up my 25-year teaching career. I took up full-time writing and speaking ministry to educate others about vision and hearing loss, and to encourage those coping with blindness and deafness.

To be able to be a successful author of three memoirs and to speak regularly at churches, civic groups, senior centers, and schools, it reminds me how God’s always looking out for me and how blessed I am.

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Amy and I actually met through another mutual friend who also is known around the world as “The Blind Blogger” and also is an amazing blind author, speaker, and coach, Mr. Maxwell Ivey.  I then had read a lot about Amy and the advocacy work and speaking she does as Max is always sharing!  And one day I got a Facebook message from her asking if I could help market her books and help with her social media.  As I began doing my research and learning more and more about her I thought?

Even with her disabilities, this girl is on fire! She doesn’t let anything get in her way.  She is an empowering, caring, and very humorous woman.  She is a true professional, is inspiring me and many others. I am very honored to be working with and for her. I am also just starting to listen to her newest book, a Christian Devotional titled, “Seeking Solace: Finding Joy After Loss” and is the audiobook to listen to when you struggle with any loss.

I look forward to reading all her books and know all my readers will too! Amy resides in PA., and the rest of her time, she fights to stay on track with her writing, finding time to go to the gym or run outdoors, and bemoaning she is at the beck and call of her bossy cat! (I knew we had a lot in common as we both are CAT LOVERS!)

Here is more about “Seeking Solace” as all her books are now in Audible format and readers can listen with a free trial from Amazon Audible Today!

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ABOUT Seeking Solace on Amazon

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 a 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.

Where can you find more about Amy and learn more about all her books? Visit her Official Amazon Author Page!

Amy invites you to connect with her throughout social media and her official website listed below! I hear she working on another new book, so CAT will have updates of events and new books when they release. So come back soon, readers!

Connect With Amy on FACEBOOK  ~  Author Website & Blog  ~ TWITTER
LINKEDIN  ~ Official Amazon Page & Books!

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