Thursday, April 22, 2010

Baby Dedication

Jared and I were both raised Catholic. We both went to Catholic Elementary school's and Jared even went to a Catholic High School for a couple of years before that school shut down and he transferred to public school. I've really struggled with the direction of my faith since a bad experience at my Catholic church with the priest there at the time. I stopped going altogether for a long time. Then I met Jared and he and I started going to different church services with his dad and Kendy for holiday's. Usually Christmas. The first time we went to an Interdenominational service it was way too different for me. The Christmas service felt more like a Christmas pageant than a church service. So Rich & Kendy would find other services that were closer to the catholic service so that we could all still go together. And I would be more comfortable. Then Jared and I started going to the regular church services sporadically through out the year on non-holidays. And I started to fall in love with the music and the sermons and the people. In the past couple of months we've gone to a couple of services at All Nations Church which worships in the auditorium of Millard South High School. The people and the Pastor's are so welcoming! They all already know Rich and Kendy so that probably helps, but it amazes me how they have opened their hearts to us and they remember who we are. It's an awesome feeling!

In the Catholic Church babies are usually baptized as a new baby. At All Nations (and I'm assuming most Interdenominational churches) they believe that baptism should be a decision that you make as an adult. You should be able to CHOOSE if you want to be baptized or not. So instead they do baby dedications. They dedicate your baby to God. We decided we wanted to do this for Caitlyn. So last Sunday (April 18th, 2010) we invited our immediate family and Caitlyn's God Parents (Nicole and Donnie) to the church service and the dedication and then to our house for lunch and dessert afterwards. There were 13 families there dedicating their baby or child to God. Pastor Murdoch was presiding over the dedication of the children. They had all the families come up to the front and stand in a half circle. Then they called each family to the center one at a time. Pastor Lincoln put his hands on Caitlyn and said a prayer. Then he was silent for a moment. Then he started talking about what he felt on his heart from the Lord about our baby girl. He said he saw art and flowers and colors. I missed part of it because I was holding Caitlyn and she was starting to squirm. But Jared told me on the way home that he also said he felt music from her. This was spot on! She loves playing music on her instruments. Grandma Kendy is already showing her the piano and she is so interested! She loves dancing whenever a good dance song comes on the radio. Sometimes in the car I'll look in the mirror and she'll be sucking her thumb and bopping her head or waving her hand to the music. So when Jared told me that it floored me! Anyway...back to the moment. We went and sat down after Pastor Lincoln finished sharing about her. It was such an overwhelming feeling that I can't find the words to explain. I had no idea what to expect from this. I had never participated or seen anything like this before. So I was a little apprehensive going into it. But I am so happy that we did it! What a wonderful thing to share together as a family!


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