Claimed for Jesus

"The Christian community welcomes you with great joy. In its' name, I claim you for Christ our Savior. . ."

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Is there anything greater? I felt like I couldn't say "YES" with enough of myself. Make them faithful witnesses to your gospel, make their parents and godparents worthy examples of the faith, lead them by a holy life into your kingdom of joy.

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We recite the creed and hear "This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess it." And we are charged to keep our children walking in the light of faith.

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And then a prayer for parents---the mother now thanks God for these children, born into new life, and "may she be one with them in thanking God forever in heaven". May the father and mother "be the best of teachers, bearing witness to the faith in all they say and do in Christ Jesus our Lord."

A great big charge--to lead God's little children to know and to love Him--but it's given with grace from Him and through his body.

Father David said that what came to him when praying about this particular baptism was the joy of the mother being complete. It fit beautifully with a poem David had found days prior (Baptism by John Keble)


"But happiest ye, who sealed and blest,
back to your arms your treasure take,
with Jesus' mark impressed,
to nurse for Jesus' sake"
. . .

"Sweet one, make haste and know him too,
Thine own adopting Father love,
that like thine earliest dew
thy dying sweets may prove"

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We were surrounded by grandparents and friends. And Grace and Sheldon's godparents sent the most beautiful baptism gift. You can see it here, in a very sweet post.

We are so blessed.

Third Birthday Party

We left off here:




And then he made another one. It was a lovely lion and was a hit with the parents as well as the kids.













The kids decorated masks when they arrived, and then we paraded to the "circus ring" (rope on the round) and played duck-duck goose.



Then the ring became a high wire, and the kids walked across it.






Then we used the rope to section off the bean bag toss area. It took the kids a while to figure out how to knock down the tower, but they did get the hang of it. Thanks, Mom, for making 14 lovely, durable bean bags! They will be great too in future games!



We had lunch and then the carousel opened. This was a big hit.















Gracie started the "Happy Birthday" song for us. She had been practicing for weeks leading up to the event.


When telling her Aunt Kerri about the day, she said she had a "lollipop party". The lollipop centerpiece was my one takeaway from Pinterest.


Happy Birthday, sweetest girl. You are a delight and we love you.