Madi & Mom's Trip - Part 1

Madi & I have been back from our trip east for a couple of weeks now, & life is certainly back to normal. In Madi's eyes, I am once again, the menacing and distracted mother of FOUR, rather than the fun & cool travel partner of ONE pre-adolescent daughter. Madi is frequently annoyed with my mothering, which didn't happen on our trip. That's OK - I am supposed to be annoying, right?

It is good to be able to spend a concentrated period of one-on-one time with a child. I find that when I am able to do that, that one child is a completely different person than she is when interacting with her siblings and competing for my attention. I wish I could do it more often! That one-on-one time reminds me of the things I love about each child individually. Unfortunately, those things are frequently camouflaged by the dynamic of the family as a whole. For whatever reason, many of the positive qualities of my children come out when they are alone with me and go into hiding when they are with their siblings. So - I need to find ways to have more of that one-on-one time. I am so very thankful for the opportunity I had to take this trip with Madi. We both loved every minute of our time together & now - here is my first installment of sharing this trip with you . . .

Our trip began with an early-morning flight from Las Vegas to Baltimore, Maryland. Once we arrived in Baltimore, my dear friend of 20+ years, Tracey, picked us up at the airport and we headed on the 2-hour drive to her parents home in Eastern Pennsylvania. Her parents live in a beautiful area on about 5 acres that is covered with trees. This picture is a view down their driveway, if you can believe it.


From the moment we walked into Tracey's parents house, we felt completely at home. Our cozy room with wood floors and fluffy blankets was like our own little bed & breakfast. Madi was very impressed with the basket of towels & bath supplies and the mints on our pillows. We crawled into bed & easily fell asleep after a long day of travel - even though it was only about 8:30 pm at home.

When we awoke the next morning, Tracey's mom, Beth Ann, had a full day of activities planned for us. She lives right in an area where many Amish make their home, so we spent the day touring the little Amish & Mennonite villages & towns. We started the morning by visiting an operating, one-room Amish school house. Beth Ann arranged it ahead of time by stopping by the school and asking the teachers if it would be OK to bring a couple of visitors from Nevada (one being a 12-year-old girl), and they kindly obliged. This was an opportunity that is not available to everyone, so I felt blessed to spend a few moments with these very faithful & peace-loving people.

This is a picture of the school house. We went back at the end of the day to take it. I wish I would have thought to take the picture during the day as the front was flocked with old bicycles that the children had ridden to school.

When we got to the school, the teachers directed us to sit on a bench in the back of the classroom while they finished a math lesson. I was immediately impressed with the behavior of the children. They were very engaged in their lesson & very well-behaved. Some of the children would sneak glances at their curious visitors, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Now, I have never considered myself to be a "woman of the world", but I can tell you that I felt very worldly as I stepped inside that little classroom. The teachers & children were dressed very simply - the teachers & girls in handmade dresses and small headpieces made out of basic fabrics & the boys in pants with suspenders. I did notice that they all wore shoes that my own children would wear - Sketchers being the brand of choice. My lipstick & jewelry seemed over-the-top in this crowd. I did not find out until later in the day that Amish do not wear buttons because they are too ornamental & worldly and draw attention to yourself. Well, you should have seen the buttons on my coat that day. They were HUGE! I was obviously drawing attention to myself!

If you enlarge this picture (which was taken later in the day at an old Amish house we toured), you can see the gi-normous (that's a word since ELF, right?) buttons on my coat. Clearly not the best choice to wear to visit an Amish school house. Who knew?

As we sat down, we were given a visitor notebook, which consisted of a little "get-to-know-you" page on each child and a page for visitors to sign at the back of the book. I noticed that most of the visitors who had signed the page were parents of the children. The students ranged in age from 6 to 13. Once they finish 8th grade, they are finished with school and go to work either at home, on the family farm or in their family business. The classroom had one teacher, in her late twenties, and an assistant teacher in her late teens. Young Amish girls can be teachers until they marry, at which point they stay home to raise families. Tracey & were completely spellbound by each get-to-know-you sheet. Their answers were so genuine and so simple.  One of the questions was "what do you want to be when you grow up?" Every girl wanted to be a mother or a teacher & every boy wanted to be a father or a farmer. Another question asked "what would you do with $100?" Many children said they would buy candy while others opted for a bike or small toy.  So very simple.

Once the children finished their math lesson, they stood in the front of the classroom and sang 3 religious hymns for us. I chuckled to myself as I noticed the 12-year-old boys barely mouthing the words - it reminded me of a typical primary program. The girls definitely carried the chorus of singers. After the singing, the teacher called each family by name and the children from that family would come to the front of the room & tell us their names & ages - in order from youngest to oldest. We were then given an opportunity, before we left, to stand in the front of the room & share a little about ourselves. The kids asked Madi & I a few questions about Nevada. they were surprised to hear that in Southern Nevada it almost never snows & that we don't have lots of trees or farms. I left feeling uplifted and honored that I was permitted to spend this time with this little group that found me just as intriguing as I found them to be.

As we left the school and drove along, I was fascinated with the scenery. The farmland was so beautiful to me & so different from what I was used to seeing. I couldn't help but roll down my window & take pictures as we drove. I was definitely a tourist! As I reflected on my opportunity to see this stunning countryside with rolling green hills and multi-colored leaves, I thought about my trip to Hawaii this summer and the gorgeous creations I saw there. Our world is so vast & so amazing, and as I see these small pockets of this vastness, I feel blessed by Heavenly Father who has created this world for us all. Now . . . back to Amish country - it is so interesting to be driving along a main thoroughfare & wind up next to a horse and buggy while stopped at a stoplight - a very unique experience, indeed. I tried multiple times to get a good picture of a horse & buggy from out the car window. I got a few, but none that were very impressive. It is particularly difficult because you feel very intrusive as you take such a picture because the Amish do not believe in taking pictures, & they do not knowingly want to be in a photograph. I cannot imagine not having one picture of my children - since I have thousands just from the past year!

Here's one shot to give you an idea of what it is like to drive alongside a horse & buggy.

One of the beautiful farms along the roadside

A horse & buggy parked at one of the Amish stores we went to during the day. If you enlarge the photo, you can see the silhouette of an Amish man sitting in the carriage. At the time I took the picture I didn't know anyone was in the buggy.

After our school house visit we went to a "Smorgasbord" for breakfast run by Mennonites. It was huge & rivaled any Vegas buffet. They had traditional Amish foods like shoofly pie, whoopie pies, and sticky buns as well as every other breakfast delight you can imagine. From there we were off to Intercourse, Pennsylvania and Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania - both rather well-known Amish areas. We visited a quilt shop owned by an Amish woman, and we also visited other little gift shops. We were able to tour an old Amish home that was no longer a private residence but offered public tours.

I learned a lot from the tour guide as we went through the home. I learned that the Amish religion was started in Europe by a group of Anabaptists - which means "not believing in infant baptism." The Amish are actually baptized in adulthood because they believe this is when a person can truly understand the significance of what he or she is doing. The Mennonites are essentially a less-conservative group of the Amish. For example, Mennonite women can wear dresses made of simple prints while the Amish wear solid bold colors. The Amish hold church every other Sunday in each others' homes. They clear out the furniture from the main living area & bring in hard wood benches (with no backs) where everyone sits for a four-hour church service!

The Amish are very serious about living in the world but not being of the world. Their simple life is absolutely fundamental to their religious beliefs. They do not use electricity, though they are very resourceful & have other ways of getting power. They do not take pictures & do not have any pictures on their walls, with the exception of calendars (because those have a functional purpose). Though they appear to be "stuck" in a time warp, they are very aware of the times in which they live and consciously choose to not be a part of it. The Amish take advantage of modern conveniences such as the internet and cars, though they do not operate these on their own. They have cell phones but cannot use them in their homes. They can ride in neighbors' cars when necessary, and many have internet businesses for selling their wares - they just hire someone to run the website for them. They are shrewd business people, which was obvious by the many businesses in the area that cater to tourists. In this particular community, the tour guide told us that there are several Amish millionaires & that one Amish man was on the board of directors for a local bank. They do not believe in debt & take care of each other. When one is blessed with business success, he shares with others.

These pictures were taken on the grounds of the house we toured. Madi really wanted an Amish bonnet. We bought the one in the picture, handmade by one of the Amish women in the community, at a gift shop for $6.

At the end of a very long day we thanked Tracey's mom for her hospitality and headed on the 2-hour drive to Tracey's home. Our trip had just begun . . .