Amish Friends

I was able to have a very interesting discussion with one of my Amish friends for about an hour and a half this evening.  Enjoyed it very much, and I know my wife would really like to have been there to ask questions...  She will soon have that opportunity, I'm sure...

John is a 23 year old Amish man who has been working construction (mostly, barns) with his two older brothers for a few years now.  He is married, and they have two young daughters (about as cute as I have ever seen)...

His oldest brother just relocated to another state, and so John is about to purchase the land he lives on from his brother (so that his brother can purchase land where he is living now).

We talked about a lot of different things, and it will be hard to do justice to everything he told me, but I'll try to relate interesting odds and ends...

They are now having trouble doing business with some banks without a social security number, but the more local banks seem to still be willing to work with them.

They do register births with the state and get birth certificates, but some time back, the state wasn't willing to register their births, so they now arrange to have an English "midwife", and sometimes she will have regular checkups with the mother-to-be, and then they must notify her within 10 days to have the birth registered.  Sometimes, she will actually participate in the birth itself, and sometimes not.  Sometimes, they still prefer to use Amish midwives for the actual birth.

They do take vitamins during the pregnancy, and they really don't have many still-births or other such problems at birth, like the pioneers of the 19th century routinely had.  A lot of time, the English midwife will be present at the birth just because then she will have a phone and transportation in those cases where some emergency arises.

They try to avoid having to go to a hospital, generally, but they will go for emergency situations.

John's grandmother just passed away within the last day or two.  She lived in northern Michigan (not exactly sure where).  So, they are chartering a bus to come and pick them up so they can travel the 6 hour drive for the funeral.

John didn't seem to mind my asking various questions about their lifestyle and beliefs, but then, I have had several Amish ask me questions also...

I have really enjoyed the opportunity to become acquainted with several Amish families, and look forward to learning more about them.  I have a great deal of respect for their adherance to their beliefs, though I don't personally agree with their beliefs.  They are generally an honest and hard-working group of people.  Though, there are dishonest and lazy among them just as every other group of people in the world...