then go with confidence. We will be fine. I’ve even learned how to brew a pitcher of iced tea on my own.” His grin was downright prideful.
She clucked her tongue. “Wonders never cease while married to you, Daniel Graber.”
“Nor to you, Mrs. Graber.” He winked and picked up his sandwich again.
Abby thought she might mull it over for a few days, spend some time in prayer, or maybe even talk to her daed about the matter. Yet by the time she finished her turkey and cheese, she’d made up her mind. Some decisions needed no epiphanies of insight to understand what she was meant to do. “I’ll call Dr. Weller on my cell phone, once it’s charged up again. I’ll tell him I’ll come back on a trial basis. Maybe he has already hired someone else. Maybe the Columbus nurse and I won’t see eye to eye. Maybe I’ll get called out too often—Laura and Jake are still too young to be left alone should Catherine return to mamm’s while Isaiah’s gone. A six-month trial period will allow things to sort out.”
Daniel pulled on his beard. “Your time spent in the county ‘hotel’ did some good after all. You’re thinking much more intelligently than in the old days.”
He fled the kitchen so fast, the dishrag she hurled connected with only the pine panel of the back door. But Abby couldn’t disagree with his assessment. Every one of life’s trials or bumps in the road brought with it a better understanding of God’s plan. If I can just keep still and listen.
That night being still wasn’t difficult to do. As Jake and Laura chased around the yard, trying to capture the last of the season’s fireflies, Abby and Daniel rocked on the porch content to enjoy the waning fair weather. Soon a heavy frost would put an end to the lightning bugs decorating the pasture with tiny points of light. Strong winds from the west would curtail porch sitting until next year.
But Abby had tonight to sit dreaming that her life would be long and fruitful, that her kinner would remain at this age forever, and the love she felt for Daniel would never ebb. Because if wealth could be measured by the number of life’s joyous moments, Abigail Graber was a rich woman indeed.
Epilogue
Abby stepped onto a dew-damp porch and breathed in the frigid air. This wasn’t a crisp fall evening or the usual weather of autumn. It was downright cold for the third week of November. Tightening her wool cape around her shoulders, she picked her way gingerly down the stone walk to the barn. A thin coating of frost made for slow progress.
“It’s too early in the season for this nonsense,” she muttered under her breath, even while her heart expanded with joyful anticipation. A baby was on the way. Another one of God’s blessings was about to make his or her arrival. As usual, she sent up a short prayer for a safe, speedy delivery. The call from Isabel Taylor, the new midwife in the area, came ten minutes ago, just after she put on her soft flannel nightgown and slipped into bed, snug as a bug, as her mamm used to say. This would be her third assist on a home delivery since returning to work—once for Dr. Weller and twice for the licensed midwife. Isabel’s business card read “Serving Wayne County,” which she thought at the time would be no problem. After all, she owned a new four-wheel drive pickup capable of cutting through snowed-in driveways and traversing mud-rutted farm lanes. And it was appreciably faster than a horse and buggy. But true to Daniel’s predictions, the Amish birthrate and requests for fill-ins at the modern birthing center in Baltic had Isabel hopping like a cricket.
Daniel was leading the mare by her bridle by the time Abby reached the barn. “Don’t be driving her faster than a trot,” he cautioned. “These roads will be slick tonight. Nobody has the salt trucks ready this early in the year.” He smiled at her before turning his face up to study one low ominous cloud. “We’ll be lucky not to get snowed in by morning.”
As she looked too, a slice of moon peeked through an opening in the clouds. Beyond it, the starry sky looked infinitely, profoundly distant. She stepped up and took the reins for him. “Back to bed with you. Milking time will be here soon enough.”
She was halfway down the drive before she heard him