Amish Circle Letters II

225 Pages·2014·1.19 MB·English

by  Price Sarah

Amish Circle Letters II:
The Second Circle of Letters
By Sarah Price
With Recipes, Hymns,
and an Excerpt from Plain Fame
and Divine Secrets of the Whoopie Pie Sisters

Price Publishing LLC.
2014
The Pennsylvania Dutch used in this manuscript is taken from the Pennsylvania Dutch Revised Dictionary
(1991) by C. Richard Beam, Brookshire Publications, Inc. in Lancaster, PA.

Copyright © 2014 by Price Publishing, LLC.
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including
information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the author, except by a
reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Contact the author at on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/fansofsarahprice or visit her Web Blog at
http://www.sarahpriceauthor.com.

Price Publishing, LLC.
Morristown, NJ
http://www.pricepublishing.org
Other Books by Sarah Price The Amish of Lancaster Series #1: Fields of Corn
#2: Hills of Wheat
#3: Pastures of Faith
#4: Valley of Hope
The Amish of Ephrata Series #1: The Tomato Patch
#2: The Quilting Bee
#3: The Hope Chest
#4: The Clothes Line
The Plain Fame Trilogy Plain Fame
Plain Change
Plain Again
Other Amish Christian Romances Amish Circle Letters: The Complete Series
Amish Circle Letters II: The Second Circle of Letters
A Gift of Faith: An Amish Christmas Story
An Amish Christmas Carol: Amish Christian Classic Series
A Christmas Gift for Rebecca: An Amish Christmas Story
Divine Secrets of the Whoopie Pie Sisters (with Pam Jarrell)
First Impressions The Adventures of a Family Dog Series #1: A Small Dog Named Peek-a-boo
#2: Peek-a-boo Runs Away
#3: Peek-a-boo’s New Friends
#4: Peek-a-boo and Daisy Doodle Other Books, Novellas and Short Stories
Gypsy in Black
Postcards from Abby (with Ella Stewart)
Meet Me in Heaven (with Ella Stewart)
The Prayer Chain Series (with Ella Stewart)
Pink Umbrellas: The 12 Days of Devotion (with Lisa Bull)
About Amish Circle Letters When I first heard the term “circle letters”, I was
immediately enthralled. As a woman of the 21st Century, I grew up with
technology and social media, both of which have become engrained in my life.
It’s how I communicate with my children, my family, my friends, and my
readers.
Unlike the Englische, Amish do not use technology. Typically, several
families will share a telephone that is always located outside of the home. A
message left on a communal voice message system might take a few days to be
retrieved and even longer to be returned.
So how do the Amish communicate?
Letters.
Often, groups of Amish will write letters and send them with a list of
addresses of people that they would like to include in the correspondence. Since
they do not have access to photocopiers, the first person on the list will receive
the letter, read it, and respond. That person sends both the first letter and their
response to the second name on the list. This continues until the entire package
of letters goes full-circle, returning to the original sender.
At this point, the original sender begins a second circle and starts the
process of over again. It’s a wonderful way to stay in touch and something that
the families look forward to receiving.
This series of books follows one family, Miriam Fisher and her seven
children. You will read their letters as they travel throughout the circle. I hope
you enjoy the series as much as I have enjoyed researching and writing it.
Finally, you should know that all of the stories that you are going to read
are based on true stories, stories that happened within the very Amish
community where I share a home with an Amish woman. However, names and
locations have been changed and I have taken the liberty of greatly embellishing
the facts, something all good stories need.
Enjoy and blessings, Sarah Price.
Table of Contents

Table of Contents Chapter 1: Miriam’s Letter
Chapter 2: Rachel’s Letter
Chapter 3: Leah’s Letter
Chapter 4: The Budget Letter
Chapter 5: Anna’s Letter
Chapter 6: Lizzie’s Letter
Chapter 7: Sylvia’s Letter
Chapter 8: Lovina’s Letter
Chapter 9: Ella’s Letter
Chapter 10: Mary Ruth’s Letter
Epilogue
Glossary of Pennsylvania Dutch
Book Excerpt #1
Book Excerpt #2
One More Thing…
About Sarah Price
Chapter 1: Miriam’s Letter
Dear Children,
Now that the first round of our letters has returned to my care, I felt the need to
continue the circle. Reading all that you wrote touched my heart, especially
when I see how much has happened in our lives in such a short period of time.
It’s hard for me to believe that, in just another few short weeks, all of my kinner
will be married. Even though Mary Ruth was not here for so long, there is an
emptiness in the house just knowing that she will not be returning. This week,
our Steve will marry Mimi Hostetler and, soon, they will move to the farm across
the street. It will be nice to get to know Mimi better. And, of course, John David
will marry his Ella, and that will complete the weddings for this season.
We pray each morning and each night for Rachel’s Elijah. We are ever so
grateful to have learned that he will take the treatment. God must have touched
his heart. Please keep him in your daily prayers, too.
With the winter season upon us, we will begin quilting again at the house to
make Mary Ruth a proper wedding quilt. I invite all of you to come to the
quilting bees, which will begin in December on off-Saturdays. It has been quite a
long time, I reckon, since we were all together quilting as a group of family and
friends. You know how important that is; there is a part of all of us going into
these quilts. They become cherished memories kept together by the threads of
our lives.
I look forward to receiving all of your letters when the complete circle returns to
me. In the meantime, I will pray for each and every one of you. May God keep
and protect you and your families.
Love,
Mother
Mary Ruth stared out the kitchen window, watching the horizon. The sky
was gray and it looked like snow was about to make its first appearance of the
season. The trees had lost their leaves several weeks ago and stretched their
branches to the sky as if crying out to the heavens, a feeling that she was
becoming all too familiar with these past few days.
The clock on the wall behind her chimed and she knew that it was six-
thirty. Only another hour or so until they needed to leave to travel to the
Hostetler home for her older brother Steve’s wedding to Mimi. She turned her
gaze back to the window, her mind whirling as she realized that Steve was
finally getting married.
For so many years, Steve had shown no interest in courting anyone. Long
after his friends married and started their own families, Steve lived his life at his
parents’ home, helping his father with the dairy farm and then his tending to his
own dairy across the street. With so much work and all of his friends building
their own lives, that hadn’t left much time or opportunity for Steve to court.
When asked if he ever had any intention of getting married, Steve always replied
the same way, shrugging his shoulders and looking up to the sky: “This, as
everything else, is really up to Him. If and when the time comes, He will let me
know.” The entire family had considered and accepted the fact that Steve was
leddich, a bachelor with little or no hope of ever getting married.
That was until Mimi Hostetler called him to pick up a piece of
replacement glass from her daed’s store.
Every marriage comes with a unique story, she thought. A story of how
fate brings the couple together. One moment frozen in time, a decision, a choice,
a look, that changes the course of the future. Yet, the thought didn’t make her
smile. At least not in the way it should have. Instead, she wondered about what
had been that particular moment in her own relationship. What was it that had
changed everything?
Mary Ruth sighed, a moment of melancholy showing on her face. Then,
with a heavy heart, she averted her eyes from the window. It had been over a
week since she had married Menno Yoder. One very long and confusing week.
And Mary Ruth was not above admitting that she was tired of walking on pins
and needles. It was a feeling she had never felt before and she certainly didn’t
like it one bit.
“Mamm?”
Startled from her thoughts, Mary Ruth turned around to see young Emma
padding across the floor, still in her cotton nightgown. Her brown hair was
tousled and loose, hanging over her shoulders. The little girl clutched a stuffed
bear in one hand and her thumb was plopped in her mouth. There were tears
falling from her cheeks as she flung herself into Mary Ruth’s arms, sobbing
against her shoulder.
“Wie gehts, Emma?” Mary Ruth asked gently, trying to coax an
explanation out of her youngest stepdaughter. Holding the upset child, Mary
Ruth rubbed her back and kissed the top of the little girl’s head. “What’s all this
fuss about, now?”
“I dreamt you were killed,” Emma cried, her arms clinging to Mary
Ruth’s neck. “That you went away like my mamm!”
Ah, Mary Ruth thought. No graceful way out of this one. “Now, now,
hush little one. You know your daed and I are married. This is my home…here
with him,” she reassured Emma. Holding her at arms’ length, Mary Ruth wiped
at her tears and smiled into the little girl’s face. She was such a petite little girl
with such a big heart. Mary Ruth wanted to hug her and reassure her that she
would never die, not like her mother had. But she couldn’t say something that
she didn’t know to be true. False promises were as bad as lies.
Instead, Mary Ruth merely said, “I don’t know what God has in store for
me but I can assure you that I have no personal intention of going away. You
must know that my home is with you and your brother and your sisters now.”
And then she heard him.
When he cleared his throat, Mary Ruth glanced over Emma’s shoulder to
see Menno standing in the doorway. He had just walked inside from having
milked the cows and had overheard Mary Ruth talking with his daughter. Yet,
there was a scowl on his face. He looked none too pleased. Mary Ruth couldn’t
imagine why. If anything, she thought bitterly, she should be the one looking
none too pleased.
“I’ll have breakfast ready in ten minutes,” she heard herself say, not
recognizing her own voice. She averted her eyes from Menno’s so that he
couldn’t see the tears that threatened to fall. It was bad enough that her voice
sounded strained. “Would you like some coffee while you wait?”
He stared at her for a moment. She could feel his eyes watching her. But
he didn’t respond. Instead, he merely shook his head and left the room, heading
toward the bedroom. Still holding Emma, Mary Ruth stared after him, her heart
breaking for having held out such high hopes for their marriage, which now felt