When the mail truck arrived in the distance, she observed Mamm walk down the driveway toward the road and return with some letters, waving one in the air and calling to Anna, who put down the hoe and went to meet her halfway. Anna immediately noticed the Strasburg, Pennsylvania, return address of Mamm’s Old Order Amish cousins, Glen and Sadie Flaud, whom she had visited with her family a number of times through the years. Glancing at Mamm, Anna frowned, then stared again at the envelope clearly addressed to Miss Anna Ruth Beachy. Since she’d never written to the Flauds, she found it very curious that these distant cousins should be writing to her.

“Go ahead—see what it says,” Mamm urged, standing there with her own look of surprise.

It turned out that Cousin Sadie was writing about a job opening for a tour guide at the Mennonite Information Center in Lancaster County. Anna relayed this to Mamm, then added, puzzled, “I wonder why she thought of me.”

“Read on, dear.” Mamm clutched the other letters as she and Anna walked barefoot to the back porch.

There, they sat and Anna finished reading Sadie’s letter. After refolding it, she looked across the backyard to Dat’s pony stable, a dark line of birds perched along its peak. Anna pondered this unexpected invitation, clear out of the blue. “Cousin Sadie believes God prompted her to tell me about the tour guide position there.” Anna filled her mother in on the particulars.

“Sounds just like Sadie, always thinking of others.”

Anna told of the Flauds’ offer for her to stay with them in their Dawdi Haus. “With my experience at the Mifflinburg Buggy Museum, Sadie thinks the job is something I might be cut out for. She’s already talked to the director, Evelyn Leaman, about me.”

“You’d really quit your job here?” Mamma asked.

“Well, I’ve already thought of that, itchin’ to try something new.” Somewhere else, she thought.

Mamm’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Wasn’t sure you were serious yesterday.”

Anna didn’t comment that the timing of this offer seemed providential, at least to her. “I’d really like to consider this invitation . . . with your and Dat’s blessing, of course. I’ve always enjoyed the Flauds’ company, and Strasburg itself is such a charming village.”

Mamm looked thoughtful and said it would be a good idea to talk with her father about this.

“Oh, I certainly will.” Anna thought about how she’d recently prayed for something new to happen in her life, though she’d never imagined something as consequential as a move away from Mifflinburg.

“If you were to go to Lancaster County, you’d have to make some temporary adjustments—my mother’s side of the family originally came from traditional Amish, you know,” Mamm said. “A much more conservative environment.”