“I live in my own house, Gunnar, with my new mother and father. But your mama said that I can come here and visit you anytime I want, and you can visit me at my house, too. Maybe you can even stay overnight sometime.” Gunnar seemed to accept that arrangement. He smiled and settled back in Soren’s lap. “I have a new job,” Soren said, “and you’ll never guess where—the orphanage!”
Gunnar looked up at him, frowning. “I don’t like that place.”
“I know. I didn’t, either. But Mr. Wingate is gone, and they hired a new director. I’m his assistant.”
“Why?”
“Because you and I know what it feels like to live there, don’t we? We understand how scared and lost those kids feel. I have lots of ideas about how to make the orphan home better. For instance, they’re going to have a classroom for the older kids who can’t read and write so they won’t have to go to the public school with all the little kids. But the main reason I wanted to work there is because I enjoy taking care of people.” It was what Soren had been doing for most of his life, and now he would have the resources to care for children like Hilde and Greta and Gunnar properly. His new mother and father had assured him that he could be anything he wanted to be, but for now he’d chosen to look after the children who needed him the most.
“It’s almost time for dinner,” Gunnar’s mother said, coming into the living room in her apron. “Are you boys hungry?”
“Yes!” Gunnar said, scrambling down. “I could eat a . . . a camel!”
Gunnar’s parents laughed, and Soren saw the love in his mother’s eyes as she looked at him. It was the same way their mama had looked at him and Gunnar. Soren silently thanked God that they would never be hungry or homeless again. It was what Mama would have wanted.
The doorbell rang, and Gunnar’s aunt and uncle and cousins piled into the room, including the little girl cousin who was dusting snowflakes from her coat. Soren would stay for dinner, but he’d promised to return home in time for the midnight Christmas Eve service at church. “You have to be there,” Kate had told him in her irritating, outspoken way. “This is the first time the professor will hear the Christmas story as a believer, and we have to celebrate with him.”
“It’s the first time for us, too,” Soren had pointed out.
“I know,” she’d said with a huff. “That’s why you’d better be there.”
Soren sat beside his brother as they gathered around the table for the meal. Everyone bowed their heads while Gunnar’s father said the blessing. There was so much food that Soren couldn’t fit it all on his plate. Tomorrow he and his parents would eat Christmas dinner at the orphan home. Kate and Miss Rebecca and the professor would be there, too. Soren had decided to use his pay to buy a present for every child in the orphanage, and Kate had gone with him to pick out items for all the girls. “I hope my mother buys the professor—I mean, my father—a new suit for Christmas,” Kate had told him. “He sure could use one.”
Soren leaned back in his chair, smiling at Gunnar’s family and thinking of his own. The joy that welled up inside him brought tears to his eyes. This was why God had given His Son to the world at Christmas: to bring new life and joy. Joy to the world.
Author’s Note
The inspiration for this novel came from the true story of remarkable twin sisters, Agnes and Margaret Smith, born in Scotland in 1843. The account of how these brilliant, self-educated women discovered a copy of the Gospels dating from AD 500 at the monastery on Mount Sinai is told in the fascinating book The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels by author Janet Soskice. While I borrowed some of the details of their lives, I moved my fictional sisters to Chicago, a city I’m more familiar with.
Agnes and Margaret Smith discovered the “hidden Gospels” in a palimpsest—a book that has been overwritten by a newer book, probably to conserve writing materials. Once the sisters scraped off the top layer, the biblical manuscript could be photographed, transcribed, and studied by scholars. The Smith sisters were also key figures in the discovery of the Cairo Genizah, a collection of some 300,000 ancient manuscript fragments found in a synagogue storeroom in Egypt. Proficient in several modern and ancient languages, Agnes and Margaret were well-respected scholars in an era when advanced degrees weren’t available to women. Because the sisters were women of deep faith, they fearlessly traveled the Sinai on a Bedouin camel caravan, hauling crates of chickens and turkeys (but without the amorous sheikh of my novel). I also borrowed the sisters’ favorite motto: “God knows when the end of our days will be. We have nothing to fear.” Their trust in God led them to accomplish extraordinary things and live a rich, adventurous life for God’s glory.
For readers who are interested in learning more about early archaeological discoveries in the Middle East, I recommend the book Gods, Graves, and Scholars by C.W. Ceram. To learn more about the rational arguments for Christianity that my character Rebecca used to persuade Timothy, I recommend books by Lee Strobel, such as The Case for Christ or The Case for Faith.
I would also like to thank the winners of a fund-raising event for our local symphony orchestra for “loaning” me their names. I’ll let my readers guess which two characters in Where We Belong are named after the highest bidders, who won the prize of having a character named after them in my novel.
Bestselling author Lynn Austin has sold more than one million copies of her books worldwide. She is an eight-time Christy Award winner for her historical novels, as well as a popular speaker at retreats and conventions. Lynn and her husband have raised three children and live in Michigan. Learn more at www.lynnaustin.org.
Books by Lynn Austin
All She Ever Wanted
All Things New
Eve’s Daughters
Hidden Places
Pilgrimage
A Proper Pursuit
Though Waters Roar
Until We Reach Home
While We’re Far Apart
Waves of Mercy
Where We Belong
Wings of Refuge
A Woman’s Place
Wonderland Creek
REFINER’S FIRE
Candle in the Darkness
Fire by Night
A Light to My Path
CHRONICLES OF THE KINGS
Gods & Kings
Song of Redemption
The Strength of His Hand
Faith of My Fathers
Among the Gods
THE RESTORATION CHRONICLES
Return to Me
Keepers of the Covenant
On This Foundation
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Lynn Austin, Where We Belong
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