The twelve Amish children left orphaned after the accident in upstate NY will be adopted.  An Amish uncle and aunt from Ohio will be moving into the children’s home.  From the report:

The Ohio couple must sell a large home they built plus land in Fredericktown before they can relocate to Jasper, the patriarch said: he hopes the couple, who are in their early 30s and have no children, will be able to move “in the fall” of this year.

Immediate family members, including the couple, discussed the potential relocation after the funeral of Elva Hershberger last Friday. The couple and family admitted they had before the funeral separately considered the move as a fitting solution to a poignant situation, the patriarch said, but were hesitant to discuss that option.

“The children have a home” and an extended Amish and non-Amish community who will help the aunt and uncle “care for them,” the patriarch summarized Wednesday.

One impossible outcome would have seen the Amish children, ages 9 months to 18 years, become wards of state.  I say impossible because there is no way the community would have let that happen.

A less happy outcome would have meant the children moving to a different home, or even splitting them up and placing them with different families (probably pretty unlikely).  It looks like the best possible solution has been found with the children remaining in their home.

Over 70 Amish children were affected by the accident, though the Hershberger children are the only ones orphaned.

Is this the largest adoption ever?  It must be close.  Something similar happened in Indiana in the 1980s, when an Amish couple adopted 11 children whose parents also died in a car wreck.

They’ll need, and are sure to get, a lot of help.

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