Answering Questions ~ Part Four

How has all this change affected your children?

They were still young enough, that it didn't really affect them.

I have a question about preserving foods, which Amish folk would obviously be adept at doing. Would you mind giving a brief description of your method of making sauerkraut? (I am growing cabbages for the first time this year, and there are about thirty of them in the garden.)I have the Ball Blue Book, but I would like to learn how Amish folk put up kraut. Thanks so much!

Actually I have never even tasted sauerkraut. We used to raise a lot of cabbage and always made sure to plant plenty of the late variety, Danish Ballhead. We would leave them in the garden until just before the first hard frost when we would remove them by pulling them out leaving the roots attached. We would place them upside down in a cool dark spot in our basement and then got to enjoy fresh cabbage for quite a while in the winter.
 
We never made sauerkraut so I'm sorry that I can't help you on this one.
 
Do you still wear aprons or head covering?
I no longer wear Amish headcoverings or aprons.

Do you bless the food silent with the head of the table clears his throat?Or do you all bless the food?
 
We no longer have a silent blessing. At breakfast and dinner my husband asks the blessing. And at lunch when he is at work either one of the children or I do.
 
I am wondering if the Amish have mirrors, because they do not like their photos taken for vanity reasons, so wondering if they look in the mirror to see how they look?

The Amish don't pose for pictures because of one of the ten commandments where it says not to have any graven images.

They do use mirrors, and know how they look.

Now that you have left Amish how does that leave you standing with a legal binding wedding? or how does that work ? Does it still get recorded through the State? or would one have to remarry again..

We have a legal binding marriage. Amish get a marriage license just like anyone else does. You can read about the day we went to get ours here.

I read lots of Amish stories by Beverly Lewis as well and was wondering if you could explain courtship/dating? Most of the stories I have read say that dating takes place under the cover of night and nobody knows until the couple decides to publish that they will be getting married.

Our dates were at night, but the fact that we were courting was not a secret. People usually sense when a wedding will be happening soon but other than close friends and relatives they don't know the exact date until it is announced in church.
 
The thing I seem to miss most in our modern church life is a sense of community and commitment. Do you find that's true? Obviously you miss the family and friends that you can no longer fellowship with, but have you found a close community of Christian brothers to replace the one you lost?
 
We have made many new friends since we left the Amish and are not lacking in the area of having a lot of people around us.