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Need a miracle? Love to work with flowers? Suffering from a handicap? By readers’ requests, Book 2 of the “Brides of Lancaster County” series has been expanded and returned to print. In this volume, “Looking for a Miracle,” written by best-selling author Wanda E. Brunstetter, the reader is give a glimpse of the struggle that a handicapped young Amish women has to overcome.

Brunstetter explained, “When I wrote the first version of the story, it was shortly after my husband and I visited a greenhouse run by an Amish man, which I found to be quite fascinating.” She continued. “When I decided to write about Miriam’s niece Rebekah, who legs had been paralyzed in Book 1 (“A Merry Heart”) after a tree limb fell on her, I thought it would be interesting to include some information about running a green house. It seems the perfect job for a young Amish woman who loved working with flowers and was looking for away to support herself.”

In this book, Rebekah asks God for miracle. Perhaps His answer comes in the form of a greenhouse. But she still feels so empty inside, believing she can never become a wife and mother like other young women her age. It appears she needs another miracle to hear her empty heart.

Daniel Beachy – who has long seemed smitten by Rebekah’s cousin – begins to spend with Rebekah. Wrongly, she believes he stays around her only because he feels sorry for her and is interested in obtaining her new business. Can God work a second miracle and convince Rebekah that Daniel would willingly choose to marry a woman with a handicap?

In the newer version, Brunstetter said, “By adding several new scenes to the revised version of “Looking for a Miracle,” I was able to let the readers know what some of the other characters in the books were thinking, feeling and doing. I especially felt that I needed to show Daniel Beachy’s point of view, helping the reader to understand how he really felt about Rebekah’s disability and her new business venture. I also wanted to show more interaction between Rebekah and her sister, Nadine.”

A special treat for readers is the recipe for Andrew’s Quick Homemade Root Beer, found at the end of the book. Many readers can now try out that wonderful recipe for themselves. Study guide questions for “Looking for a Miracle” are available only on christianbook.com on the Internet.

“Looking for a Miracle” might make a nice gift for a handicapped person or the family of one. Brunstetter helps her readers to better understand all that is involved in daily coping with a handicap and also a sibling’s reaction to what appears to be favoring one child over another.

Brunstetter lives in Washington State, where he husband pastors, but she takes every opportunity to visit Amish settlements throughout the states. She has written several novels and is best know of her “Daughters of Lancaster County” series. She has also written novellas, stories, articles, poems and puppet scripts. In her spare time, Brunstetter enjoys reading, ventriloquism, gardening, stamping and having fun with her family. She has two grown children and six grandchildren.

In July, she won the 2006 Retailer’s Choice Award for Women’s fiction category from ICRS for her book, “The Storekeeper’s Daughter,” Book 1 of the “Daughters of Lancaster County” series, published by Barbour Publishing Inc. Readers can look forward to the third booking the revised “Brides of Lancaster County” series entitled, “Plain and Fancy,” to be available in Christian bookstore and on Choice Book racks the first of November.

Related Authors

• Wanda E. Brunstetter

Related Books

• A Merry Heart (Trade Paper)

• Looking For A Miracle (Trade Paper)

• Plain And Fancy (Trade Paper)

• The Hope Chest (Trade Paper)