A special Sunday

It may have taken us two and a half years to have our sweet Abigail Grace baptized, but it was well worth the wait. I had always envisioned having our babies baptized when they were still infants and small enough to fit in hand me down Christening gowns, but when Abby was born it didn't quite work out like that.

For the past several years, Jim and I were on a "church shopping" adventure, trying to find a church that we felt would best fit our family needs. Before Abby was born, we found a church where we liked the pastors, connected with the messages, but unfortunately there weren't many young families, only a few children, and the prayer list (names of congregation members) took about ten minutes to read during each service. Needless to say, we didn't feel like it would be the church for us to raise a family so we continued to shop around. We visited friends churches, a church that had live music with strobe lights and a concert feel, churches of different denominations.

Finally we found a church that immediately felt like "home." We were welcomed with friendly smiles and I remember one of the pastors seeking us out our very first visit there. The messages are relatable to us, the congregation full of all ages, and children everywhere. The contemporary service works for us ... live music, but not over the top. All in all, we just feel like this is a church where we can raise a family, a church that we can so happily call ours.

And that was important to me. I wanted to have Abby baptized in our church. I didn't want to have her baptized at a random church just to say we'd had it done. So even though it was later than expected, I'm extremely thankful that we were able to have this special day to share with our family and friends.

Before the baptism. Abby "cheeses" for the camera all the time.

Abby's godparents were able to join us!

Uncle Chris (Jim's brother) & Aunt Jenny aka Aunt YaYa (my sister).

Our family with the pastors from our church.

Although most of our family was unable to make this special day, we were thankful to have friends come and share the day with us. It meant a lot to our family to have these wonderful people around us!

"Let the little children come to me ...

for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of God belongs."

Mark 10:14