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This book was being sold by Friends of the Library. I've enjoyed books by this author in the past. This one is set at Christmas. An Amish family and a non-Amish woman meet at the doctor's office. The doctor asks the non-Amish woman to take the whistle the Amish boy left there back to him. Before she does that, she has to get her prescription filled and pick up her husband and his SAR dog from his workplace (school) on their way to meet her father.

A storm strands the couple on the Amish farm, and in that simple life, they rediscover truths. ( )

In this touching tale of God's faithfulness and love two worlds are forever changed and lives are mended in unlikely ways.

Jaime Fiztpatrick doesn't realize that what she considers a chance meeting in a doctor's office is actually an action of God's mighty hand. Struggling with the loss of her mother and the insecurities of a father who left her as an infant Jaime is in constant search of who she is. She is now in a struggling marriage and is trying to involve her long absentee father into her life.

Mattie Reihl is overcome with grief. She feels the weight of being unable to have more children pulling her down. After her recent miscarriage she feels that there is no hope left and her life seems devoid of joy and peace. Struggling to maintain faith but also trying to control her life she feels her old self slipping further and further into a grey oblivion of desperate sadness.

Little did these women know that God intended for them to help each other find the answers to their deepest questions and longings and to rediscover His love for them.
When Jaime drives to the Reihl farm to return little Danny's whistle she finds herself trapped in a winter storm with her husband CJ.

There the two families are thrown into a weekend that will forever change them. This is a sweet and amazing book.

Thank you Revell for this review copy.

Available September 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group ( )

This is the first story I have read by the author and I look forward to reading more of her work. I liked her writing style and I liked the message this story left me with; that Emmanuel, God is with you, in the midst of your life, through every up and down in your life and how that can and will change one's perspective.

Jamie Fitzpatrick feels life is spiraling out of control. Her Mom has died, her father suddenly reappears in her life after all these years and she thinks her husband C.J. is in the beginnings of a relationship with another woman. As her and C.J. set out to meet her Dad and go on a cruise they get stranded in a bad snowstorm and end up being taken in by an Amish family; Mattie and Solomon Riehl, and their son Danny and their cousin Zach. Mattie too is struggling with the fact that she only has one child, when she desperately wants a house full of them. She will come to terms with the fact that although her life is not exactly how she imagined it as a girl, it is her life and it is good and her God is good. Mattie will help Jamie in her struggles and Jamie in turn will help Mattie see things more clearly in her life.

The ending, where they are searching for their son Danny and C.J.'s rescue dog, will help everyone to see things more clearly, even in the midst of a blinding snowstorm.

This story only spans the time of three days, but there is a lot of things that happen in those three days and it held my attention all the way through. I liked the way this author dealt with the Amish way of life and how they embraced the English couple and how both families were helped. A great story to add to your Christmas collection. Bundle up and be prepared to enjoy this 'Lancaster County Christmas'. ( )

A English couple end up spending Christmas with an Amish family.

Lots of mini stories in ths book as well. ( )