How fast a year passed when surrounded by loving family and friends! As Beth Ann packed what she’d need at her sister-in-law’s house for Christmas Day, she edged past the excited kinder in their comfortable house at the edge of the village. It wasn’t far from where the other Amish families lived and close enough so she could walk to the general store. The store that she bought with her inheritance, the store that made her happy because she could stay in Evergreen Corners and had found a way still to help others.
Dougie rushed past her to grab his black hat. He seemed to grow another inch every day, and he was the first to brag about the kitchen skills she’d gained in the past year, though she and Robert reminded him that boasting wasn’t acceptable for a plain family. Dougie just gave them one of his grins. One day, he’d challenge Robert’s height, and Beth Ann had to let down the hems on his trousers almost every week. His little brother, celebrating his sixth birthday today, was a scholar at the new Amish school along with the older two. Tommy had mastered Deitsch more quickly than his siblings, a fact he never let them forget.
“Don’t forget these, Mamm,” said Crystal as she handed Beth Ann three bottles for the boppli who was asleep in the basket on the sofa.
“Danki, liebling.” She thanked the Lord for the three older kinder who were as dear to her as little Lena.
Since Lena had arrived more than a month early the week before Thanksgiving, Beth Ann had split her time between home and the hospital. Finally, last week, the boppli had been released to come home. Even before Beth Ann and Robert had married as soon as she was baptized, they’d worked with DCF to keep Dougie, Crystal and Tommy.
First, there had been the paperwork signed by Kim, after she returned to rehab and stayed there long enough to get clean, to give up custody of her kinder. Her sister had remained in Las Vegas where she’d found a gut job and was trying to convince Kim to join her far away from the environment that had led to her addiction.
With the kinder available for adoption, Beth Ann and Robert had arranged for a home study. The same week it’d been finished, she’d discovered they were going to have a boppli.
Two days after Lena’s arrival, the adoption paperwork had been signed and Dougie, Crystal and Tommy became Yoders, happily embracing a plain life. Her family—her Amish family—was her dream come true.
“All set?” Robert picked up the basket with little Lena. His steps were the light ones of a man who had everything he wanted in his life.
In the past year, he’d learned it was okay to get angry, because he was in charge of his feelings, not the other way around. It was also okay to be happy, which he’d had more trouble accepting. That had turned around when the purchase of the general store was completed, and Beth Ann showed him the storeroom where he could have his woodworking shop.
He hadn’t been able to start right away, because he’d been hired to supervise the rebuilding of the covered bridge once Gladys procured the special funding she’d sought. In October, on the second anniversary of the devastating flood, the first cars had driven across it. The following day, Yoder’s Woodworking hung out its shingle on the store’s porch. Robert had, through his hard work and amazing skills, earned enough to pay off the last of his daed’s debts.
“We’re set,” Beth Ann said, motioning for the kinder to head out the door and get in the buggy for the short journey to their aenti’s and onkel’s house. She couldn’t wait to see the kinder’s faces when they discovered that Kim, now free of drugs and living in a halfway house, was joining them for supper.
“Merry Christmas,” he murmured before he kissed her. “The happiest one yet.”
“Ja.” She slipped her hand onto his arm. “Because I have received the greatest gifts anyone could want. My family and my husband and my wunderbaar home and friends.”
“Just what you wanted?”
“Ja.”
He tapped her nose as if she were no older than Crystal. “Me, too.”
If you enjoyed this story,
don’t miss these other books
from Jo Ann Brown:
The Amish Suitor
The Amish Christmas Cowboy
The Amish Bachelor’s Baby
The Amish Widower’s Twins
An Amish Christmas Promise
An Amish Easter Wish
An Amish Mother’s Secret Past
Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Rancher’s Holiday Arrangement by Brenda Minton.