Amish Christmas Twins. Shelley Shepard Gray

E.A. washed her hands and then moved next to Jemima. “When I think of all the changes you kinner have gone through, it boggles my mind. I’m proud of you.”

      Jemima knew what her adoptive mother was thinking about. They all really had been through a lot in the last year.

      A few weeks after Christmas, Melanie had come to the house and escorted them to a judge’s office. There he’d interviewed both Jemima and Roy separately and talked about adoption with them.

      Roy never would tell E.A. what he told the judge, but Jemima had started crying when she told the man in the black robe about Dan and Shirl. He’d been so kind and patient, she had started talking a lot. A whole lot.

      Before she realized it, she’d told him about how different things were with Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz. She’d even shared how she sometimes woke up in the middle of the night afraid that she would be back with one of her former foster families.

      The judge had listened intently, asked a couple of simple questions, and then walked her to his chambers door with a kind smile and pat on the head. Jemima hadn’t been sure what to think of that, but she took it to be a good sign.

      One month after that, she, Roy, Melanie, and Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz had gone to the courthouse together. They’d all held hands while the judge talked a lot. Then, when he called them a real family, Jemima had burst into tears. That had been okay, though, because E.A., Will, and Roy had cried, too.

      E.A. sat down next to her. “Uh-oh, did I say something wrong?”

      “Hmm? Oh, no. Not at all. I was just thinking how different this year is from last Christmas.”