Adelaide Forsythe has left her privileged life of wealth in the Stanhope Mansion after marrying attorney, Howard Forysthe, son of a clergyman, living in a modest home in New York City. Waiting for Christmas by Lynn Austin brings back a main character from All My Secrets as the newlyweds, Adelaide (Addy) and Howard, are beginning their life together. Addy’s love for Howard sparkles with enthusiasm to become a wife who can develop all the skills she never learned while living a life of luxurious parties and society events despite having no idea of how to cook or keep house. Howard lovingly dotes on Addy concerned about how to provide for her so she wants for nothing.

In late fall as Addy is with her mother visiting one of her charity projects, she fails to notice a young 8-year-old boy, Jack, has hidden in their carriage after sneaking out of the orphanage where he was living. Addy discovers him hiding in the bushes outside her home shivering in the cold. Her heart for this young boy shivering without a coat nudges her to bring him into her home to find out who he is and how he arrived there. Jack isn’t forthcoming except to insist he is not an orphan and he must find his 3-year-old sister, Polly, whom he lost when taken to the orphanage. He is determined to find his way back home to await his father who is to return on a ship at Christmas that he is working on to try to provide for his family and be able to get a doctor to see his wife.

This heart-tugging story takes you into the poverty-stricken crowded tenements of New York City in 1901 to find Polly and Jack’s family. Jack’s life inside the orphanage is one he refuses to return to as he insists he has a family and is not an orphan and must find his sister that he believes is hiding just like him.

As the story unfolds and becomes more complex, Addy and Howard determine Jack must stay with them until he finds his family. This decision proves challenging for all of them since Jack has never lived in such a nice home even though it is modest. Addy has no experience of how to care for a child and Howard can only hope Jack’s insistence on finding Polly and going back to the tenement to wait for his father can be accomplished. Jack prays fervently and wants to light a candle in church he recalls doing before his family was separated from one another.

This story tests the faith of each character as they seek a miracle to locate Polly and wait to see if Jack’s father is still alive and comes home. Jack’s faith never wavers that his dad will return as Howard tries to prepare him that his prayers might not be answered as he hopes either in finding Polly or his father returning. Jack’s concern is that he find Polly and they return to the tenement home they had lived in when his father left.

Lynn Austin tells the story as only she can. You won’t want to put the book down as each character discovers the truth about God’s message of Christmas. Will a young boy’s faith bring him the answer he seeks? How will Addy and Howard’s lives be impacted on this uncertain quest? With none of the usual festivities of Christmas Addy knew before Howard, how will she view a very different Christmas than she has ever known?

“The very heart of Christmas is God’s longing for his children to be reunited with Him. It’s why He sent His Son on the first Christmas.”

Lynn Austin

This is a story you won’t want to miss as we wait for this Christmas. If you read All My Secrets, you’ll love stepping back into that story to see how it continues. It is a perfect gift to buy for someone this Christmas but you’ll want to get a copy for yourself first.