Baby Dedication

Yesterday was such a special day.  We dedicated ourselves as parents to raise this precious baby in the church and in God's Word.  I love our new church family and it was such a blessing to feel eager for Jonah to be a part of that family.  We are so lucky for all the families Jonah gets to be surrounded by who can help shape his faith - his genetic families from both sides, our school family, our church family, and even in large part our neighborhood family and beyond into our community.  What a special place we have to help train up this child. 

For so many years I couldn't stay in a church service when they were having a baby dedication.  It was just too painful.  While we stood up there today, I prayed for the aching hearts of mamas without children.  Mamas who have either lost babies, or mamas whose babies haven't even been born yet.  Proverbs 31 describes the wife of noble character as loving her husband all the days of her life, and I believe a mama can love her baby all the days of her life too, even before she's met him or her, and before the rest of the world recognizes her as a mom.

I loved the words of our pastor as he prayed over and dedicated us, that we can't dedicate another's life but we can dedicate ourselves to serve this child well by providing him with the teaching and example of living out of God's truth.  I especially liked his specific prayer over our marriages.  I'm starting to fully grasp how actually not focusing on Jonah first, but on our walks with The Lord, and secondly our marriage, actually serves Jonah best.

Jonah received this sweet little New Testament as a gift.  

The sermon was so meaningful too.  It was about the armor of God, and it reminded me of when I was 9 and was baptized, explaining to my parents and church family that I wanted to be baptized because I felt the calling to fight as a soldier for God's army.  I knew there was spiritual warfare taking place and I was ready to pick my side.

But I think the true meaning of yesterday will be remembered in the fact that Jonah was dedicated on Super Bowl Sunday.  

There's a Bible I haven't seen yet:  the football fan's Bible.  I'm sure it's on a bookshelf for sale somewhere :-)

Back to our day.  Oma and Opa came over for lunch after the service. 

(I realize the grandparent names are probably confusing as we've gone through a few name changes recently.  Oma and Opa were previously Lolli and Coach, and prior to that Lolli and Pops, but they've always been Mom and Dad to Howard.)

(There was also a time during a grandparent name identity crisis that they were The Grandma Formerly Known As Lolli, and Coach.  Oma and Opa are a lot easier to say.  My breath thanks them for the change, and I'm sure Jonah will appreciate trying to learn 'Oma' more than 'The Grandma Formerly Known As Lolli.')

Back to our day again. Caesar salad and garlic bread, this  sausage and tortellini soup I got from Andrea's blog - mcanallyfamily.blogspot.com (I used Sicilian red pepper chicken sausage in mine), lasagna, pear cider and chocolate bundt cake with cappuccino ice cream and coffee for dessert.  Perfect food for such a chilly day.

We prayed for our lives and our interactions with one another to provide Jonah the best possible launching pad of opportunity for his faith, and our biggest hope of all hopes - that he would one day accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

After Oma and Opa left, Papa did the dishes and Jonah and I snuggled under quilts and read books.  It was a perfect day.

Here's a pic from our day, but this is an iphone pic of the display screen on the back of my 'real' camera, so it's horrible. I'll upload all my good pics in about 14 more years.

I hope you can still get some of the hilarity of Jonah's expression.  I think he felt pressure to entertain the entire church and it was just too overwhelming.  He did a great job, nonetheless :-).  

(And we were all pleased there were no bathroom sounds or burps made right into a microphone.)

And you would have never known it, but Howard felt awful that morning.  He wanted to be there for this though.  Such a sweet, dedicated Papa. :-)