title: A Mother's Gift
author: Hubbard, Charlotte
description: Charlotte Hubbard celebrates the joys and challenges of motherhood in this uplifting story, set amid the warmth and tradition of an Amish Missouri farm community.
  
  For Leah Otto, marrying Jude Shetler is a long-held dream come true. As a young girl, she was captivated by his good looks and talent as an auctioneer. When Jude, now a widower with three children, begins to court her, Leah doesn't hesitate. Other men may not appreciate her tomboy ways, but Jude values Leah's practical nature and her skill with the animals she tends, and both enter the marriage with joy and optimism.
  
  Three months later, Leah feels as if her world is coming down around her. Her twin teenage step-daughters, Alice and Adeline, are pushing boundaries and taking far too many risks, while five-year-old Stevie deeply misses his mother. Leah, more at ease in a barn tending her goats and chickens than in a kitchen, struggles with her housekeeping duties.
  
  Then a baby is abandoned on their doorstep, and Leah must search her soul. Caring for little Betsy fills her with renewed purpose and the strength to begin pulling her family together. With Jude's steadfast support, Leah finds that what she once thought of as a happy ending may be something even better -- the beginning of a life rich in love, faith, and unexpected blessings.