July, 2014

Dear Readers,

I was born on May 22, 1971, to very dear parents, Ben and Elizabeth Coblentz. I was raised on a farm in Geneva, Indiana, along with my five sisters and two brothers. Our parents have both passed away. They are greatly missed and have left me a legacy of great memories that I will always treasure.

I was a young girl at home when my mother started penning The Amish Cook newspaper column in 1991. She wrote that column until her sudden death in 2002, and then I picked up writing it. The past columns, written by my mother and then by me, are very much like a diary. Sometimes I read through them and see things that I wrote about the children that I would have otherwise forgotten. Our children like to read through them sometimes, too. Ever since they were born, they’ve had someone writing about them!

I have been married for twenty-one years to my loving husband, Joe. We feel blessed to be parents to eight sweet, wonderful children: Elizabeth, 20; Susan, 18; Verena, 16; Benjamin, 15; Loretta, 14; Joseph, 12; Lovina, 10; and Kevin, 8.

Ten years ago Joe and I moved to southeastern Michigan from our home in the Berne, Indiana Amish community. We are members of the Old Order Amish church here in Michigan. God has blessed us richly. We want to live our lives honoring God for sending Jesus Christ as our Savior.

I hope you will continue to enjoy my writings under my new column name: Lovina’s Amish Kitchen. I thank each of you for your continued support! May God bless each of you!

—Lovina Eicher