Free Faith and Love Found by Claudia Hope

Faith And Love Found
     
    Racheal, Rebecca, her sisters and Elijah had enjoyed the winter months. There was little work to be done and they were all able to spend time together. Racheal and her daughters were able to focus on healing from the death of their husband and father, Abe, while Rebecca and Elijah were able to spend more time together getting to know each other better.
    The women were also able to focus on the quilting business that their mother ran and Elijah spent a lot of his time planning the crop for the following spring. It was going to be a difficult year, both Elijah and Rebecca knew that. With Abe passing before the crop was harvested the previous year Elijah had stepped in to help Rebecca’s mother and sisters. He had struggled to keep up with the crop that Abe had planted and knew that the garden would have to be even bigger this year.
    He had already told Rebecca that he was going to ask her to marry him in the spring and knew that it would make things even more difficult for him. He would have to ensure that he was providing for his new wife while taking care of the crop and ensuring that Racheal and her daughters were taken care of as well. It was not the ideal situation, no man ever planned on taking care of the family of his wife, but it was something that had to be done.
    Elijah had cared for Rebecca long before her father had passed, but had been unable to show her because everyone thought she and Levi would be married. Elijah would never be thankful that Abe had passed, but he was thankful that the terrible circumstance had brought him and Rebecca together. He could not wait until they were able to have a home of their own and he could call her his wife.
    Elijah knew that there was much work for Rebecca to do in order to plan the wedding. The people in his community did not have elaborate weddings like those in the English world. The woman was in charge of making her own dress which was generally blue and not white like in English weddings. Once the wedding was over the dress would become her Sunday clothes and it would be what she would be buried in.
    Rebecca would have to spend time working on their wedding night quilt, the quilt that would lay on their bed for the rest of their lives, the couple's house would have to be built, a barn would need to be raised. Elijah would have to take care of getting all of the animals that Rebecca would need to help provide food for the two of them. There was so much to do that Elijah wondered if he could do it all.
    He knew that having a wife meant that he was going to have to work with his father in the construction business that his family owned and as he thought about all that he would have to accomplish he was thankful that his father had raised him to be a hardworking man.
    Rebecca knew that Elijah was going to be taking on a lot more than the average man took on when he asked a woman to marry him. She knew that their life would not be normal, but Elijah had promised her that they would not leave her family property that he would continue to help take care of her mother and sisters. Rebecca did not allow Elijah to see the concern that she had but she wondered if he could handle it. Each night when Rebecca went to bed, she prayed that God would give Elijah the strength he needed and that he would send her mother a husband and her sisters a father figure that would provide for them.
    Racheal looked as if she had aged 10 years and Rebecca could tell that she was worried about the future. Rebecca tried to reassure her that everything would be okay and that Elijah would take care of everyone but even she was beginning to wonder if that were possible. There were nights where she would lay down in her bed and wonder what life would be like if her father had not died. Rebecca would dream that she and Elijah were able to have a normal life, but each morning she would wake up and remember that it would never be that way. Rebecca felt as if she were cheating Elijah