Survivor Of Amish Shooting Gives Birth

Child Named For One Of The Girls Killed In Pennsylvania School Massacre

(AP)  A pregnant woman who survived the shooting at an Amish school earlier this month has given birth and named the baby after one of the girls who was killed, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The 22-year-old woman, who would give her name only as Lydia, gave birth Oct. 10, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The child is named Naomi Rose, after 7-year-old Naomi Rose Ebersol, one of five girls fatally shot by Charles Carl Roberts IV.

The gunman took over the West Nickel Mines Amish School on Oct. 2 but released Lydia, along with three other women with infants, and 15 male students. He then tied up and shot 10 young girls, killing five of them, before killing himself.

Lydia, a teacher at another nearby school, had gone to the West Nickel Mines school that day to visit her sister-in-law, Emma Mae Zook, who eventually ran to call for help.

"This baby saved my life," Lydia said after the shooting, according to Catherine Saunders, one of the nurses who attended the birth.

The 6-pound, 4-ounce baby was delivered three weeks early at a birthing center in nearby Georgetown. The staff of three midwives delivers about 240 babies a year, half of them Amish or Mennonite, Saunders said.

Four of the 10 girls who were shot had been delivered at the birthing center, Saunders said; two of them died.

Besides Naomi Rose Ebersol, the girls fatally shot by Roberts were Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12; Marian Fisher, 13; and sisters Mary Liz Miller, 8, and Lena Miller, 7.

[loliteblue]

I hope and pray that this new "littleone" brings much comfort, joy, and hope to a grief stricken community. God bless you all, my continued thoughts and prayers... You've taught the world well in the "Art of Forgiveness". A lesson we all
need daily in our lives...

[mickeyjay31-2009]

As we watch the world go to hell in a handcart, we have learned much from the Amish. They are truely living their beliefs. How many of us can honestly say that. I hear people all the time telling others what fine Christians they are and how they are living life in the Word. Yet, they do nothing to make this part of the Globe better. They ridicule the beliefs of others. Their hypocricy runneth over. These quiet people of another era live their religion. They understand what love and the Word of God means in their everyday lives. I have learned much in my six decades, but none so important as the lessons learned from the Amish over the last month.