~ A day being Amish... cont ~

"Laura... now comes the hardest part of today..." Amy said with a serious tone

"Ok, what's that?" I asked wondering what her response could possibly be.

"It's one thing to look like you're Amish, yet it's a completely other thing to ACT Amish..." She said with a big smile on her face.

"Hmmm.... we'll see how that part goes..." I responded with an unsure smile, acting like an Amish women would be quite something for me to try and accomplish.

She was sure that everyone would mistake me as being "really" Amish, and that they did.

I pulled into the school/community center "parking lot" and got out of the car and walked into the meeting hall.

"Laura???..... Is that REALLY you..." Came suddenly out of the mouths of several women. Within a few minutes I had ten amazed Amish women surrounding me with huge smiles all asking me how it felt and what I thought of "being" Amish.

"When you first walked in I thought to myself, "Who is the new Amish girl", then it hit me that it was you" Said one of the women.

"It took me a few minutes to realize that it was really you" Another one chorused

"You look so authentic, just like one of us" Still another said with a joyful tone.

Had I known how happy they would be I would have been "Amish" the whole time I was there. It was great!! The "English" girls thought it was quite amusing to see me all dressed up. All throughout the day I had various girls coming up and asking for a picture with me.

Being "Amish" among the Amish is one thing, but being "Amish" around the "English" is quite another!!!

"Are you going to go like that into town???" One of the girls asked me.

"Of course, why not" I responded.

"Wow, we'll see how everyone reacts when you're driving into town"

That was something I had not thought of. So I went and asked someone if I should have a "driver" or if it was ok for me to drive. After getting permission to drive I took my two Amish friends and another girl and we headed off for town.

First stop: Amish store

No problem, yeah I got quite a few looks from shocked Amish and English people as they saw a young "Amish" girl driving into town. But walked through the store was no big deal as 90% of the people there were all Amish. Yet being that the store didn't have everything that we needed for me to make crisp and cookies for everyone we had to go to the English store. Hmmm...

Second stop: Main General store

Have you ever wondered what it felt like to be Amish, or maybe Muslim? Well let me tell you, I now know!! In the beginning as I was walking through the store I was wondering why everyone was looking at me. Then it hit me: I'm Amish!!!

"Bzzzzz.....bzzzzzzzz....bzzzzzzzzzzzz" went my phone. Without thinking I took it out of my Amish looking sweater and started talking and walking around the store. Being that I like to fidget with things in my hands while I talk I took the van keys out of my other pocket and was playing with them as well while walking through the store.

Walking out of the store I stood by the van while I was waiting for the girls to finish their shopping. As I was standing there this man kept walking by me all the while staring at me in somewhat disbelief as he went in and out of the store a few times. Maybe making sure that what he was seeing was really real.

Imagine this: your walking through the store and see a few young Amish women. As you see them walking around you hear something you never imagined coming from one of their pockets. To your complete shock you see them take a cell phone out of her pocket and start talking on it as if it is nothing. Still in amazement you see her walk out of the store holding van keys and then as you watch her several times not able to take your eyes off of something you can still hardly believe you are seeing you watch her and two other Amish girls get into the van and one of the Amish girls gets into the drivers seat and drives away.

I can only imagine what stories have been spread by this experience!

All the while us girls got quite a good laugh out of it :)

The rest of the day went great. Teaching class was so much fun, I looked the part other than using my Mac! All in all it was a great experience that broke down a lot of barriers and touched many hearts. A dear elderly woman asked me if I undertook a transformation overnight, and how I liked being Amish.

Would I do it again, of course!!

Have to end it now, will add some more later... :)

Off to go visit another Amish family that I met yesterday and had quite a wonderful time with them!!!!

The Lord is really opening up doors :)

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