“Annie! Mark! We need to talk about your wedding! Annie, you’ll need a dress,” said Mrs. Fisher with excitement.
“We will be married during the upcoming wedding season, after this fall’s harvest,” Mark said. “We are both baptized and able to marry. I want to begin a life with you, Annie. I hope we have several children,” said Mark.
Annie blushed, thinking of children.
“I hope we have several, Mark. I will be happy with what the Lord wills. If he wants us to have many babies, or if he only wants us to have one or two, I will be happy for that. I want to spend my life with you, grow old with you and raise our family together,” said Annie softly.
Mr. Fisher invited Mark to join him in the barn as Annie and Mrs. Fisher talked about her marriage dress.
“Dark blue, and the first time you wear it is at your wedding,” decreed Mrs. Fisher. “I have been saving linens and towels for you ever since you were a child. You won’t lack for these when you start your new home with Mark. Your daed has been making furniture for you. I suspect that’s what he and Mark are doing – looking at the items he’s already made.”
After Mark and Annie finished discussing their wedding plans with Annie’s parents, they drove to the Stoltzfus farm. Walking into the house, Mark announced his engagement to Annie. His parents were predictably happy. Again, older and younger women, older man and son split up to talk about the impending nuptials.
“My mamm will be making my wedding dress. She already has my measurements from making other clothing for me,” Annie said.
“I would like to help out – make things you will need for your home, if you would accept that,” Mrs. Stoltzfux diffidently proposed.
“I would like that very much. Maybe we can get together my my house?” Annie suggested.
“Ya. We will do that. Do you know where you will be living?”
“Mark said we would live here while he and his daed build our house. Planting season will be coming up in the next couple months, so he’ll only have evenings and weekends to build it. My daed would also help, to make it go faster,” Annie said.
“Annie, come with me,” Mrs. Stoltzfux gently commanded. “I don’t have daughters, but I have been making items here and there for Mark’s future wife. It is time to show you what I have stored away,” said Mrs. Stoltzfus.
In a spare bedroom, she and Annie sorted through a chest full of place mats, towels, dish cloths, bath towels, a colorful quilt and some baby blankets.
Annie’s eyes filled with tears. “Mrs. Stoltzfus . . .”
“Please Annie, call me mamm. I would be so honored,” said Mrs. Stoltzfus.
“Mamm, denki!” said Annie, as tears fell down her cheeks.
The two women embraced as they wept with joy.
Downstairs, Mark and Mr. Stoltzfus joined them and they talked about the upcoming wedding.
“We will talk to the deacon and the ministers – we’re talking about this coming wedding season, after the harvest is done.” Mark took Annie’s hand in his as he spoke.
On the way home, he took her hand gently in his warm hand.
“Annie, I want to be able to spend more time with you. When I’m not working on our house, we will get together.”
“Okay. Let me – and my daed know what we can do,” said Annie.
Before Mark left the house, he stood with Annie on her front porch, holding her hands in his own and gazing into her brown eyes.
“Annie, I love you,” he said fervently.
“I love you, too,” Annie said.
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Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Living Amish: Simple Pleasures (An Amish Love Story Series) Page 7