Wanda E. Brunstetter, Looking for a Miracle

Looking for a Miracle

Wanda E. Brunstetter

Barbour, Feb 2007, $12.95

ISBN: 1597892998

Waiting in her Aunt Mim's carriage for a ride home, a tree snapped, leaving preadolescent Rebekah Stoltzfus wheelchair bound. While physically her legs are paralyzed, no one in her Pennsylvania Amish community understands how thirteen years later she mentally remains crippled too. Rebekah knew within one month of the accident that she would always be a burden to her loved ones and still feels that way as she will never marry and raise a family since no man wants a cripple for a wife. Still, she tries to be helpful and does write a monthly column for the Lancaster County Budget newspaper.

At a songfest, Daniel Beachy admires Rebekah's courage but also sees the sadness of loneliness in her eyes; he wants to see her, but she refuses to believe a handsome man like him would court a half-woman like her. When he keeps hanging around, though she falls in love with Daniel, she assumes he is either using her to attract one of her cousins probably Mary Ellen or pities the cripple. She will settle for nothing less than a shared love so she tries to drive her persistent suitor away.

This is a somewhat expanded reprint of the second Lancaster Brides' tale though this reviewer does not know how much differs from the original. The storyline focuses on Rebekah whose childhood accident (occurred in A MERRY HEART) has left her thirteen years later emotionally scarred. Daniel's patience to court and win the heart of his beloved makes for a superb Amish romance.

Harriet Klausner