The Heart of the Amish

Barbara Schwartz was born into a family of quilters, but she would rather eat dirt than partake in another quilting frolic or sew on another binding. When her parents send her to Indiana to help her grandmother in her quilting shop, she finds herself amongst a very different community. It's only one summer and then she will be back in Kentucky where she belongs.

Ruth Helmuth has never been rude in her life; trust her to choose the bishop of her Amish community for her first time! Ruth has worked hard to keep body and soul together since her husband, Levi’s, death. She tends her herd of goats, making her living from the milk and fiber she gets from them, all while running a farm and household by herself—and very competently, thank you! How could she imagine the bishop suggesting she should give it all up to another family, who will “make better use of the space”?

Jacob Lantz asked Trini Sutter to marry him when he was five. The mature nine-year-old thoughtfully responded that she’d consider his proposal when they were older. Now, nearly two decades later, the Amish farmer returns to the beautiful countryside of Arthur, Illinois, to take the independent Quilt Room owner up on her promise. Quiet, handsome Jacob is truly in love with the spirited “list maker,” and Trini finds herself falling in love with Jacob, but the youngest of eleven has big plans of her own. Will she forfeit her plan for the man of her dreams?

Simon Graber became a widower and a bishop early in life. His sole focus is his very close-knit Old Order Amish community—not entertaining the idea of marriage, despite what many of the elders think. When sickness comes to Cherry Grove, Kentucky, Simon reaches out to a neighboring community for help.

If God wills it, Mary Yoder will do it, even if that means using crutches for the rest of her life. She was badly injured in a buggy accident as a child. Still, she is content living in the Dawdi Haus connected to her parents’ farmhouse and with her work weaving baskets and raising specialty roosters whose feathers she uses to make excellent trout lures. She is truly happy at twenty-nine, but she wouldn’t mind finding a husband—if the Lord wills it.