"Life on the Rush farm in South Dakota is not easy. Even so, over the past four years, Ethan Cooper and his siblings have grown to feel they belong with their adoptive family. Then Chad Rush makes an unexpected announcement. The family is moving again--this time to Mexico! Ethan is scared. What dangers will they face in another country? What will it be like to live on an oil homestead instead of a farm? And what about his dreams of getting an education?...

In 1907, while starting a new life in a Christian orphanage, eight-year-old Ethan and his three younger siblings hear about the prospect of being sent west on an Orphan Train and pray to stay together.

"Nine-year-old Ethan Cooper has managed to keep his family together for a year in a Pennsylvania orphanage. Now he and his siblings are boarding a train headed west. He can't help but worry: Mr. and Mrs. Rush in Nebraska have agreed to adopt all four Cooper children, but what if they change their minds? In the meantime, Ethan and his siblings encounter their first dust storm, explore train cars, and watch friend after friend leave with new parents....

Fresh out of school herself, eighteen year-old Mabel takes a teaching job in a farming community similiar to the one where she grew up.

Mabel finds life as a minister's wife in a small Michigan farming community brings many joys as well as many tribulations.

Continues the adventures of Mabel, now sixteen, as she leaves home to go to the academy in town, where she stays with relatives and enjoys being grown up.

Grandma Mabel relates the events of many past Christmases.

Still content with her life as a minister's wife in a small Michigan farming community, Mabel observes with great interest the busy lives of family and friends.