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Dear Louisiana: A Letter From Jerrilyn (Jeri) Lotz In Kansas... by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Rated "G" by the Author.
A woman in Kansas writes to Louisiana Sandusky in Tennessee and tells her about HER family.
Thursday, June 30, 2005, 11:10 a.m., C.D.T.~
Dear Louisiana Sandusky~
You don't know me, but I read both of your books, and I was quite moved by your inspiring story. What I read prompted me to write to you, so..I AM! :)
To tell you a bit about myself, my name is Jerrilyn Kay Lotz, but my friends and family call me "Jeri". I am married to Doug (have been for ten years now! :) ), and we have four children, ALL boys. Our sons are all adopted (we tried to have kids, but found out that we could not, so we turned to adoption), and they come from places like the Ukraine, Laos, Guatemala, and Korea. Our sons are named Daniel Evan (8), Miles Chance (6), Peter O'Shea (4), and the baby, Nigel Matthew, who is one. Daniel was adopted from Laos while Miles comes from Korea. Peter came to us from the Ukraine, and the baby (Nigel) came to us from Guatemala. Our boys are all relatively healthy, I am glad to say, but Nigel DOES have some "developmental delays" due to his being born in a different country, plus we were told that he was born premature; and Daniel does have some mental retadation and some physical delays. He receives speech, occupational, and physical therapy, and he is doing quite well, according to his therapists. Daniel is in the "Special-Needs" class at his school, where he is mainstreamed, and he is doing quite well for himself (much to our relief).
Doug, my husband, works at the local GM plant; he works on HUMMERS (and yes, we DO have a HUMMER, by the way! :) ), but I am a "stay-at-home" mother. I figure, while my boys are young enough and are "growing and learning", then I might as well be there for them, when they need me the most. I am sure that, as a mother yourself, you can relate to this.
I am sure that many people have asked you and Bill this, but I can't help but wonder how you manage such a large group of children--IN addition to working AND writing! I am just glad that you and Bill are there for each other--and the children!
I must let you know this, but I am not a Christian. I DO believe in God, but I just don't "practice my faith", and I haven't commited myself to living for Him or haven't joined a church. Oh, we DO go to church at Christmas and at Easter (we mainly do it for the kids, if anything else), but we just don't go to church on a regular basis. We find it to be a very big inconvenience, and besides, we are too busy with our lives (or with our jobs) to even THINK of going! I also have a big problem with "religious zealots" preaching to us, and I guess this is why we don't regularly go to church because to us, too many Christians DON'T act "Christian-like", and too many of them are "hypocrites", yet they think they are "holy" and let the rest of us know that; and it really turns both Doug and myself off! I hope you understand my feelings about this and why I feel this way about Christians as a whole.
I also don't understand how Christians can say that God loves them, yet there is so much hatred, so much war and violence, so many hurting people in the world...How can people such as yourselves POSSIBLY be happy with so much trouble going on today in the world? I personally find the news to be very depressing, and I am sorry, but I would rather NOT know what is going on in the world today!!
And how can you say that God loves people when there are people who are starving to death, or people who don't have homes (or a family)? Why would He let a baby be born handicapped? What did the parents possibly do to warrent their child to a lifetime of suffering and/or pain?? I can't handle being around people who are severely disabled because I never know what they are capable of doing or how they may act, and tht really creeps me out!
Well, Louisiana, I am going to stop writing now. If you don't want to write back to me, I can understand, but I just wanted to let you know that I read your books and also what I thought of them. I also wanted to tell you about myself and my family and share my beliefs and why I happen to feel the way I do.
Take care, and have a very good day!
Most sincerely,
Jerrilyn ("Jerri") Kay Lotz, Lawrence, Kansas (mom to four boys, ages 8, 6, 4, and 1).
Let this coming of age story of a boy named Bean take you back to a simple time. Set in a small southern town in the 1960's, encircled by a river and gleaming white cotton fields.
Thursday, June 30, 2005, 11:10 a.m., C.D.T.~
