Dreamer.Thinker.Player.: Oh Happy Day!!

Yesterday, May 20, 2012, Jonathan and Benjamin were baptized!! It has been something that we have wanted to do since Jonathan was born. We felt we needed to be committed to a church and be members before we did this, so that is why it has taken so long. We were so excited to join First United Methodist of Hurst a few months ago and our first order of business was the Baptism!

As most of you know, I was a Baptist prior to becoming a Methodist recently. So I spoke with the Pastor and Associate Pastor about the practice of an "Infant Baptism". It was explained to me that is in almost the exact same practice as a Baptist "Baby Dedication". The intent and verbiage are the same, mainly asking the congregation to commit to help us bring up the boys in a Godly manner. With the additional steps of sprinkling water on their heads and then we laid our hands on their head and prayed for them to grow up to love the Lord. It was a very touching and moving experience. I was beyond pleased with the way things went. I have been on cloud nine ever since!
It goes without saying that this was an "infant" baptism and neither of our boys are infants anymore! This caused Michael and I a little stress prior to the event...What if they don't behave in the church before we are called up? (There was about 10 minutes of singing and introduction prior to) What if Ben just takes off? What if Jonathan doesn't want to go up there? What if they freak out when the water is put on their head? - You get the picture! So I feel confident in telling you that - WE HAVE THE BEST BEHAVED KIDS IN THE WORLD! I mean it! We worried for NOTHING! Both of them sat quietly and thoroughly enjoyed the service. They were both very obedient during the baptism and neither of them got upset with the water or anything! YAHOO! I think it made it a little bit sweeter for Michael and I, we were both so pleased with them. We even had people come up to us afterward and comment on how nice they behaved!!!
When we left the service I asked Jonathan what he thought, he said, "I just stayed as quiet as I could so I could hear everything that was said." - I was beaming with pride! He is such a sweetheart! And if you ask him, he will be proud to tell you, "I was bath-tized!" We took the boys to their Sunday School and Nursery and then rejoined for the rest of the regular service.

We were so lucky to have our immediate family there with us! Thank you so much for coming! It meant the world to us! After the service we went back to our house for some yummy food and fun!

We were given one for each boy!

This was the handout for the order of service.

I love this photo for so many reasons. You know me, I like to have lots of photos to mark an occasion. But I received a last minute run down letter from the church of "things to know" and one of them was, NO PHOTOS during the service. WHAT?? I was so disappointed. But I understood. - But...Ben was being SO SWEET during the Amazing Grace on the Bells that I pulled out my iPhone and held it low to catch this shot. He was grooving to the music and glanced up at Daddy! I wish I could have gotten a picture of Jonathan. He was sitting on my other side and being so, so good!

Pastor Mike McKee with us after the service!

Olga, Brian, Michael, Anna Marie and Pat at our house after the service! Thank you so much for lunch Pat!! She paid for us to have catering from Carino's!! It was so good!

Jonathan, Waylen and Ben! I am not sure where Scarlet, Amy and Will are, but this was the only time I brought out my camera!! :(

Ben enjoyed the lunch!! - He had fallen the night before and caught his right eye on the side of his toy basket. You can tell that it is a little swollen and red here. I was sick about it and almost wanted to cancel the whole thing. No I do not want to take my baby in front of the whole church with a BLACK EYE! Ugh. Thankfully, he was okay and it wasn't that noticeable! But I moved the toy baskets!