"Letters to Loki"

                       

                         

    One Sunday morning, I happened to sit next to a woman in church whom I'd never met. After the service, we had the chance to introduce ourselves and visit. Her name was Verna...she was an artist. “Would you like to see some of my work?” she asked. I told her that I would love to see her paintings. So, she offered to send some photos via email.  
    Verna's emails arrived the next week. Her work was beautiful, with one picture in the collection immediately catching my eye. It was of a little girl stretching out her hands towards a butterfly—the perfect cover for a book I had been working on for several months. 

      I told Verna about my book, Letters to Loki, and asked for permission to use her drawing on the cover. She kindly agreed. With the Lord's help, everything seemed to fall in place as the book was finally finished and ready to be published. However, the finishing of this project marked some new beginnings. It was the start of a new friendship with Verna and also the beginning of the adventure of trying to find someone who was given up for adoption about three decades ago.
      In the mid-1970's, I returned to my hometown of Bakersfield, California after teaching in the LA area for several years. I had lost contact with most of my friends from high school and college days. However, God caused my path to cross with another single, middle-aged woman, Linda Farrow, who had also just relocated to Bakersfield and had moved back into her parents’ home after being on her own for decades.  Linda was dealing with some very difficult personal issues at that time. I became a close friend and support for her; and she became my "mentor" in prayer, since we shared in common a strong faith in Jesus Christ.
      When Al Lowery and I got married in 1982, I moved to Porterville to start a new life together with him. Linda also made a move—to the big island of Hawaii. It was while she lived in Hawaii that she had a baby girl whom she named Lokika Elizabeth. For several reasons, Linda made the heart-wrenching decision to give her baby up for adoption. The only detail Linda knew was that a missionary couple from Honolulu had adopted Loki.

       Now fast forward to 2014. Verna's illustration strongly spoke to me of little Loki's reaching out for her birth mother, symbolized by the butterfly just out of reach. Linda passed away several years ago, leaving behind her pain and suffering to find joy in the presence of her Lord and Savior. It is my desire to find Loki, who is turning thirty this month, so that I can share Linda's legacy of courage and faith with her.

        Writing a book seemed like a good way to find her, although it feels like I am putting a message in a bottle and setting it afloat in the ocean! My prayer is that one day Loki and I will be able to meet in person. Who knows? Maybe you'll be one of the links in the chain of people leading to finding Loki. And that will make a great sequel to the story!

      Books can be ordered directly through www.amazon.com and are also available on Kindle.
    Please feel free to contact me at:  judylynnlowery@ocsnet.net 

 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV