Free An Amish Christmas With the Bontrager Sisters by Hannah Schrock Page A

though she looked like she had been dragged from the jaws of death, Martha knew her sister was a survivor, one of Gott’s strong people. They all were. All three Bontrager sisters who had taken the odds Gott sent their way and still held their heads high and dealt with them with dignity.
    Martha took her place in front of Bishop Amos, Jacob beside her and her sisters, Jarron and the kinder behind her. With her family all around, Martha could ask for no more of Gott’s blessings.
    “Merry Christmas,” Jacob whispered to Martha as the service started.
    “And to you, my love,” Martha replied.
    “Thank you for the lovely present, Em,” Jarron murmured, gingerly patting her belly.
    “Thank you for being mine,” Emma said. “And for the great joy you give me every day. I would not have known such happiness without you.”
    “Merry Christmas, Mamm ,” Isaac and Ruth nuzzled into Sarah as the service proceeded.
    “Merry Christmas my dear kinder ,” Sarah wheezed, kissing their curly heads. She glanced up at the ceiling and imagined the sky beyond. “Merry Christmas my love, wherever you are,” she sent her message on the wind.

Coming Soon…..Stolen Amish Baby

    Life was a blessing that everyone took for granted. Everyone was simply contented with the fact that they exist, without even realizing that their very existence, their very lives were gifts that no other human being could have given them. Only Gott had that power, that authority to bring whoever He wished into this world. He alone determined everyone’s lives and fates, but sometimes people wished they had that very authority. For some, they wished they could create life as easily as Gott willed it.

    Adam and Gabrielle Troyer were one such couple who wished they had such power. Married already for nearly seven years without a child to care for, they could not help but feel a little envious of all the new couples they saw during Sunday service who had already been blessed. Those new families’ happiness only seemed to rub the depressing truth in Adam’s and Gabrielle’s faces...they couldn't have a child. 

    Gabrielle brushed the flour from her hands and sighed. She seemed to sigh a lot recently. It wasn't as though she were miserable:; not really. She loved Adam the same today as she did when she married him. They adored each other. They both had fulfilling lives. He worked in his father's furniture store, a store that one day would become his. She had a part time position with an English tailors at town. They both had a great deal of friends within the Amish community and beyond. There would hardly be an evening go by where they weren't invited to dinner, helping out their siblings or engaging in a range of pursuits with various groups.  But all of that couldn't hide the feeling that something was missing from their lives.

    It didn't take a genius to work out what that missing thing was.

    They were the only couple in the community without children.

    Most people close to the couple understood that they shouldn't ask. Her mother had given up talking about it after seeing the floods of tears her daughter was reduced to whenever the subject was raised. They were trying. But Gott simply hadn't blessed them. Of course some of the older community members, who didn't really understand the situation, couldn't help but ask when they met. Gabrielle would smile and say in a little while and then rush home and cry her heart out for the rest of the day. The couple had even considered visiting an English specialist on the subject. Doctors could do marvellous things these days, Adam had said. He produced a newspaper article all about something called IVF and the countless number of childless couples it had helped. Gabrielle had read that article time after time. But despite her desire for a child she knew that she couldn't do that. Gott and Gott alone had the power to grant them the blessings of a child not a doctor. She put the article away and instead she