Child of God

Each child of ours is a gift. A very precious gift. One we do not deserve in any way, but have been blessed with by the grace of God. We are so thankful for these beautiful little beings that we have been blessed with, and are overcome by the miraculous wonderment of it all. The struggles, the triumphs, the love, the personalities, the silliness, the adorableness, are all absolutely amazing to us.

Today was our day to publicly thank God for sharing His gift of a new life to us with Bethany.

We thanked God for her special little life in our lives.

We promised to raise her in a Christian home.

We gave praise to God for all the goodness He has given us.

We thanked God for all of our family (nuclear and extended).

We prayed over Bethany as the beautiful child of God, perfectly and wonderfully made in His image, and thanked Him for making her exactly as He did.

As earthly parents, we can never love her as much as her heavenly Father can.

But we promise to love her as much (and even more!) as is humanly possible!

It was a beautiful, sunny day for the occasion, a sweet gift in this rainy, windy, cold fall weather we have had this season. Alex was a dear, as he drove Melissa, Crispy, and Jonny to church at 6:50AM! Even with the added hour from changing the clocks back, that is pretty early! Jonny had rehearsal, and the other two kiddos just so happened to be singing in the JAM choir during all three morning services today. So, with three kiddos already dressed up successfully and gone to church, and two teens that could handle themselves in the dressing department, I only had the youngest three to worry about. That certainly made getting ready on time quite a bit easier!

The service was lovely, our family filled the corner of the stage, while all the relatives supported us from reserved front row seats. Melissa and Crispy did such a nice job singing on stage after Bethany's Dedication prayer given by Pastor Dave. They both looked so grown up already. (I will add pictures as they come....my dad was able to get some nice shots with his magic camera that can take good pics in all type of less than favorable lighting conditions).

We had a nice brunch at our house following the service, which allowed some good chat time, snuggles with the special little lady of the day, and good food. Bethany was literally "the center of attention"! It has been so nice being with family again, two weekends in a row! It is something I really miss about moving from the cities...we just do not get to see everyone as often as we would like by living so far away. Barb and Alan were also brave enough to make the trip all the way out to our house....I think it was a nice diversion for them after the difficulty of burying their son only one short week ago. As they have said so often in the past few weeks, it has been so comforting to focus on the circle of life through the reminder of Bethany's entrance in the world....one person enters eternity, while another beautiful little person is added to our lives on earth. God's got His hand on all of us....as we enter, leave, and stay for a brief while. What a good day to remember that ALL of us are His dear, beloved children. Something to be thoroughly thankful for today, and everyday.