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LITTLE AMISH GIRL
At ten years old, Ivy Schrock’s world shatters when she is forced into foster care after suffering abuse at the hands of her father. Torn from her Amish home, she is thrust into a string of foster families where every day feels like survival. But Ivy is determined to find her place, slowly learning independence and forming fragile friendships that help her heal.
As she grows into adulthood, Ivy discovers a passion that fuels her spirit, even as shadows of her past resurface to test her strength. Heartbreak and painful memories threaten to pull her under, but Ivy refuses to break. With courage and perseverance, she forges a life she can call her own—and along the way, she opens her heart to love, friendship, and a future she never thought possible.
Little Amish Girl is a poignant journey of survival, self-discovery, and love. Perfect for readers of women’s fiction and book club readers who enjoy heartfelt stories with a hopeful ending. This novel will stay with you long after the final page.
PREFACE
Some stories come from imagination. Others grow from truths too deep to ignore. Little Amish Girl was born from both.
My mother was once a little Amish girl. She grew up in a strict Old Order Amish community in Indiana, where tradition ruled with quiet, unforgiving authority. Behind the kerosene lamps, home-baked goods, and reverent prayers lived pain that few outside the community ever saw. My mother endured that pain. She carried it, buried it, and later in life, began to speak it aloud.
She left the Amish in the early 1970s, alongside my father, because they could no longer reconcile the teachings of the church with what they believed was right. For that choice, she was shunned. She was no longer welcome at her family’s table. Literally. Years ago, I accompanied her to visit Amish family in Indiana. We met at a diner, but when we arrived, they quietly pulled our two tables apart. They could not be seen eating with someone who had left the faith. We didn’t stay, and my mother cried all the way back to the car. I tried to make her laugh, tried to brush it off. But the wound had been reopened. That day was only one of many when this religion, her own roots, cut her deeply.
Little Amish Girl is fiction, but it asks a quiet, aching question: What if someone like my mother had been taken out of that life earlier? What if she had found help? What might her healing have looked like, sooner?
Before my mom passed, she offered Amish phrasing suggestions for this book. She was happy I was writing it and was excited to have a copy in her hands one day. Sadly, I wasn’t able to give her that in time, but I know she’s smiling down at me now.
She also left behind essays she wrote while earning her GED—reflections of her Amish upbringing. Those stories were a gift, and I’ll always cherish them along with her memory.
This novel is dedicated to her, and to all the girls and boys who were never given a voice.
May they find one here.
-Viola