Virginia is completely overwhelmed with the circumstances in her life. Losses loom on the horizon: elderly grandparents who can no longer stay on the family farm; her nephew Slate, who longs to leave for a home of his own; her brother Danny and his wife, who leave for Kenya; and Mindy, whom Virginia has raised as her own daughter but who may be torn away from the ones she loves by a cold-hearted birth mother.

"That's how life is," Virginia tells Mindy. "Things just keep being... different." Virginia has always dreaded and fought change. Now, can she embrace it?

In this fourth volume of the Prairie Legacy series, bestselling author Janette Oke gently opens a window into the life of a close-knit family trying to find its way through bewildering times. In her own quiet-paced, inimitable style, she examines the role that change plays in our lives and how we are shaped--or broken--by it. Longtime fans of this inspirational author will find no big shocks or surprises here. Just vintage Oke. --Cindy Crosby


From Library Journal
In Quiet Strength, Oke began the story of Virginia and Jonathan's married life. Picking up a few years later, Oke finds that the couple having been blessed with three healthy children and a foster daughter, Mindy, the child of Virginia's friend Jenny. As Virginia and Jonathan move through their daily lives, secure in their love for each other and in God's love for them, the family faces some difficult decisions. Jenny returns, gravely ill, and demands custody of Mindy. And, if that weren't enough, Marty and Clark Davis, Virginia's grandparents, are unable to live alone on the farm, and no one wants the responsibility of forcing them to move into town. Although Oke offers no real sense of difficulty for the couple, she wraps up this series in truly happily-ever-after form with a pleasant book fans will adore. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Her character had been shaped and tempered by both adversity and triumphs....
If Virginia could have chosen to accept or discard all the changes that came her way, she gladly would have let most of them pass right by herself and her family. She loved her life-living on the farm with her beloved Jonathan and their children, not far from her parents and her grandparents. But a change that is tearing at her heart is the gradual but steady physical decline in Grandma Marty and Grandpa Clark. She cannot imagine their familiar farm home without their welcoming smiles and their words of wisdom that arise from of decades of life experiences and a solid faith in God.
And their lovely daughter Mindy, who has blessed their home ever since her mother left the tiny child with them, has been encouraged and guided to pray for that mother all these years. Was God answering that prayer, or was the worst nightmare any family could face now upon them?
Virginia was not sure
she had the strength or fortitude
to truly become...
Like Gold Refined

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal