Dreams of a Longing Heart — Jane Peart

It is the spring of 1890.Three eight-year-old girls leave overcrowded, bleak Greystone orphanage near Boston and set out together on the "Orphan Train" heading West to adoptive homes. Along the way, the little girls - shy, delicate Laurel, vivacious, mischievous Toddy, and kind, scholarly Kit - make a vow to be "forever friends". At journey's end, they go to live with separate families in the town of Meadowridge. As the years go by, each of the girls encounters challenges and discovers love as she pursues her dream of a home of their own.

Dreams of a Longing Heart is Kit's story - the sustaining power of faith. After her grieving widowed father leaves Kit, her younger brother and baby sister at Greystone, she tries futilely to keep the family together. Yet the younger children are "placed out" and Kit is sent West on the Orphan train. She is chosen by the Hansens, a farm family ho want to adopt a girl to assist the work-worn mother of five boys. Kit rises above her dreary situation by excelling in her studies. Will she ever realize her secret longings to love and be loved?