Lori Hoflen

I and my husband, Jim, live in rural Iowa and have 11 children. We are active Christians and members of a local church.

In 2007 our youngest son, two year old Zaeden, physically died from choking on a piece of fruit. Within 5 months, our family also suffered through our 18 year old son being in a car accident, sudden loss of my job, and miscarriage of our daughter, Faeth. At that point, overwhelming guilt and grief drove me to despair. I lashed out at God and became suicidal. I was voluntarily committed into a psychiatric ward and diagnosed with severe postpartum depression.

Those events tested my faith as never before. Even during the hospital stay with Zaeden, though, our family was blessed beyond measure. Within three weeks of Zaeden’s Celebration of Life service, I had penned the majority of the book Heaven is Near… When a Child Dies. It has seemed perhaps my calling to share Zaeden’s story of how in desperately challenging times we have a choice: to stay stuck in the valley of the shadow of death or to somehow cling to faith and allow God to help us.

My younger kids and I wrote a special children’s book especially for Zaeden that features our family building a colorful rainbow with him at our farm. My daughter Adriel illustrated the characters and the kids matched colors with farm animals and fun things at our farm.

Jim and I are founders of Hoflen Ministries, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Through that ministry we are active in our community - one service we provide is to gift people who are going through a challenging grief event with a comfort quilt that I designed with inspiring Christian symbols and colors.

I’ve also been invited to speak at support group meetings and events. Zaeden’s story has been shared many times in many places, and now I am thrilled that it can be shared even more globally as a book.

For many years I have also enjoyed: being a volunteer EMT with our local rescue squad, coaching volleyball from youth ages through high school, and teaching Sunday School. Professionally, I have achieved a Master’s Degree in Software Engineering. Jim is retired Air Force and works for the Department of Homeland Security.

Jim and I are also the founders of JHL Inc., the publishing company for the books Heaven is Near… When a Child Dies and Zaeden’s Rainbow.

My life is busy, and Jim and my schedules revolve around our kids’ activities, but we try to keep it as simple as possible. We cherish family time at home. Time spent at our farm is a priority. That’s where I am most relaxed and can somehow get priorities set right again. We currently live in a house that is a couple of miles from our farm. Our dream is to move this house to the farm and build a retreat center, with lodging - offering solace, comfort, and inspiration to those in need.

I pray that reading my books may be inspiring for you and that blessings may pour out to you from the pages. Thank you, in advance, for supporting our ministry through the buying of these books.

Peace.

lori