Our New Friends from the Lord---The Hess Family

As I mentioned in an earlier post, on our trip to Bennington, Vermont we met a lovely group of evangelist singers. This led to us getting together with one of those families for a weekend in Russell, Mass. The Wonderful Hess Family:

Ron and Sandra and their children.

They are a Mennonite family with 8 children. Shari, Randy, Travis, Krista, Shronda, Cynthia, Rylan and Jolyn.We saw their daughter Shari and their son Randy at the evangelical singing outreach in Bennington, VT.

Maddie and Grace have had a great desire to dress modestly, and we just love cape style dresses. All of the older girls in this photo have those style dresses on. We had purchased some cape dresses last year in Ohio Amish country from a thrift store and the girls love them! Here is a photo of one of Grace's cape dresses.

All of the girls in the choir we saw in Bennington, VT had them on, too. They are a wonderful dress with a panel across the front for modesty.

We wrote to the Hess family and asked if they'd be willing to show us how to make them. They graciously invited us to their home in Russell, MA for a weekend in order for the wife Sandra to show me and the girls how to make a dress. We came with our trusty old Singer sewing machine and fabric to make two dresses. One for each of the girls. We had a wonderful weekend with them. We even attended their church service on Sunday morning. They showed us great hospitality! Many great and lifelong friends were made! We left with one completed dress and the other far enough along that we could finish it at home and that we did. Our Christmas card photo shows the girls wearing their dresses. Didn't they come out great?

Here are some photos from the weekend. Grace even adopted a kitten from them, too. His name is Stanley. He's a great cat!

Here is Maddie and Krista. She's 13.

Grace, Maddie, Krista and Jolynn having fun!

Here's part of the gang hanging out outside. From left to right: Cynthia, Shronda, Grace, Jolyn, Maddie, Krista, and in the front is Rylan. Grace is holding Stanley, her new cat!

Here are the girls sewing. They have a beautiful sewing room. They make all of their own clothing for the girls and the Mom.

We thank God upon every rememberance of you, Hess Family!