All My Tomorrows

  The Children's Aid Society was founded in 1853 by Charles Loring Brace and a group of social reformers at a time when orphan asylums and almshouses were the only "social services" available for poor and homeless children. Mr Brace worked under God's hand and began to find many other Christian people who wanted to help these children who had been left homeless by either their parents deaths or their parents turning them out onto the streets. For more than seven decades, the Children's Aid Society helped more than 150,000 abandoned, abused and orphaned children find homes in the west, by moving them across the country on "orphan trains". The emphasis was on giving these needy children a new start and a family life.
 All My Tomorrows is a fictional book with a small touch of actual historical figures. It is the 2nd in a trilogy of The Orphan Trains.  It begins in New York in March,1876 and ends in the west in April 1887. The book follows a number of children who have been left on the streets in New York for numerous reasons and taken in by loving Christian people at the Thirty-second Street Orphanage.
 A 10 year old Teddy Hansen finds himself at the funeral for his mother. His father had walked out two years before and his mother had worked herself to death trying to provide for herself and Teddy. Now he is left with only two aunts and two uncles. One of the aunts wants to keep him and raise him but the other three refuse saying they can't afford him. Teddy finds himself on the streets with other children, some who are not very welcoming to a new comer and soon he finds himself being beaten by an older orphan. Justin Smith, a police officer, is a God send and finds Teddy and took him to the hospital where he is stitched up and fed and given a warm place to spend the night. Officer Smith knows someone who knows someone and he soon finds Teddy a place in the Thirty-second Street Orphanage.
 Twins, Deena and Donna Mitchell, are the oldest of seven and another baby on the way when their parents tell them they have to move out. They are thirteen and should be able to find jobs on the streets. They are to leave the following morning, and as they lay in bed, crying and fearful of how they will make it on the cold streets of New York City, they fall asleep in each others arms.  The strong bond between twins, especially identical twins, never falters, as they start their new journey, are seperated in a few weeks and then find each other after many years. They never stopped feeling the others pain and joy thru the years they had lost each other.
 Johnny had a loving father. His mother had passed away just a year earlier and his father worked hard to give Johnny a loving home. When Officer Justin Smith shared with Johnny how he had helped young Teddy Hansen into the orphanage, it made a great impression on young Johnny's 13 year old heart. He wanted to grow up to be just like his father, a police office who had a heart for those in need. Suddenly, just days after he shared the story of young Teddy, Johnny finds himself sitting next to Teddy at the orphanage. A strong bond begins that day for the two young boys.
 So the journey begins with numerous children on the Orphan Train, taking them across the country to the west. Numerous stops and men and women looking them over, one by one they are seperated and taken to new homes, to start what they hope is a new life with a loving family. It was not always easy and it was not always what they expected but these characters in this book find happiness and grow strong in their faith. 
 All My Tomorrows is filled with love, hate, fear, learning to trust again but mostly young people who find God and learn to lean on Him in tough times and learn to follow His calling in their lives. 
 It was hard for me to read some places because of the torture some of these children went thru and I did have to skip some of it but it was one that was hard for me to put down. It is such a good book on faith and knowing that God is always in control of our lives, whether we even know Him or not.


 

 This book was written by Al & JoAnna Lacy and published by ALJO Productions, Inc.  Al has written more than seventy novels and Joanna, his wife, is his coauthor. Books they have written are Angel of Mercy, Battles of Destiny, Journeys of the Stranger, and Hannah of Fort Bridger series.  The Lacy's make their home in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Al Lacy is also an evangelist. They have three grown children.