Beverly Lewis: The Shunning
Beverly Lewis “The Shunning” Book one of The Heritage of Lancaster County Series.
Preparing for her upcoming wedding to a widower - one Bishop John Beiler - adopting his five children as her own - Katie Lapp is astonished by finding a baby satin dress in the attic of her parents home.
Old Order Amish families do not wear - let alone own - Satin, so who could this newborn outfit belong to?
Slowly, the hidden truth - kept buried for over twenty years - comes to life. That infant’s clothing was hers: a gift from her birth mother shortly before being handed over to the Amish couple that had just delivered a still-born daughter.
Unable - or unwilling - to accept that she wasn’t born to a true Old Order Amish family, Katie strives to find her biological mother - a mother who is dying and seeking to reunite with her only child - and runs away from the wedding, leaving her hopeful groom at the alter.
Well, the Ordnung stipulations are clear: once someone takes the kneeling vow - a sign of adulthood and full submission to the old ways - it doesn’t matter if they were born Amish, or born fancy or born to Englishers. The traditional Amish ways are what they have chosen and to abandon the community-family - even if just to put lies to rest - is not just forbidden, such an act is unthinkable.
Katie Lapp has more issues with the rules and regulations that limit what a woman can and cannot do - not having her own say, not able to play any musical instrument, not to hum new, catchy tunes that aren’t from the hymn books, not to have friendships with non-Amish - she cannot make herself completely cut off all physical reminders of her drowned boyfriend, Daniel Fisher, nor his intriguing guitar, and musical notations.
Katie Lapp finds herself under the Shun, completely cut off from everyone. Family, best friends from forever, neighbors, the entire community has been ordered not to speak to her, not to talk with her, not to admit that she exists. The shun has been imposed upon here in an effort to keep her mind, body and soul completely focused on what the Bishop, the accepted leader who decides which traditions are followed and obeyed from the old ways, has decided really matters, and not the outside that world that gave little Katherine Mayfield up so long ago.
What really maters, Katie decides, is not strict adherence to traditions. No - Katie needs to know why, to connect with her mother, to understand the deep unsatisfied longings of her heart.
So, she seeks refuge with her Mennonite cousins: the only extended family that is willing to converse with her while she is under the shunning.
Preparing for her upcoming wedding to a widower - one Bishop John Beiler - adopting his five children as her own - Katie Lapp is astonished by finding a baby satin dress in the attic of her parents home.
Old Order Amish families do not wear - let alone own - Satin, so who could this newborn outfit belong to?
Slowly, the hidden truth - kept buried for over twenty years - comes to life. That infant’s clothing was hers: a gift from her birth mother shortly before being handed over to the Amish couple that had just delivered a still-born daughter.
Unable - or unwilling - to accept that she wasn’t born to a true Old Order Amish family, Katie strives to find her biological mother - a mother who is dying and seeking to reunite with her only child - and runs away from the wedding, leaving her hopeful groom at the alter.
Well, the Ordnung stipulations are clear: once someone takes the kneeling vow - a sign of adulthood and full submission to the old ways - it doesn’t matter if they were born Amish, or born fancy or born to Englishers. The traditional Amish ways are what they have chosen and to abandon the community-family - even if just to put lies to rest - is not just forbidden, such an act is unthinkable.
Katie Lapp has more issues with the rules and regulations that limit what a woman can and cannot do - not having her own say, not able to play any musical instrument, not to hum new, catchy tunes that aren’t from the hymn books, not to have friendships with non-Amish - she cannot make herself completely cut off all physical reminders of her drowned boyfriend, Daniel Fisher, nor his intriguing guitar, and musical notations.
Katie Lapp finds herself under the Shun, completely cut off from everyone. Family, best friends from forever, neighbors, the entire community has been ordered not to speak to her, not to talk with her, not to admit that she exists. The shun has been imposed upon here in an effort to keep her mind, body and soul completely focused on what the Bishop, the accepted leader who decides which traditions are followed and obeyed from the old ways, has decided really matters, and not the outside that world that gave little Katherine Mayfield up so long ago.
What really maters, Katie decides, is not strict adherence to traditions. No - Katie needs to know why, to connect with her mother, to understand the deep unsatisfied longings of her heart.
So, she seeks refuge with her Mennonite cousins: the only extended family that is willing to converse with her while she is under the shunning.