Baptism

This post is very late, I know, but I thought I should post it anyway - for posterity let's say.  

On July 20, Dexter was baptized!  We invited a bunch of people to see the baptism and then join us afterward for a picnic-y type lunch of pulled pork, pink stuff, blue stuff, corn salad, chips, veggies, etc.  Joel and I provided the pulled pork (all 20 pounds of it!!) and the chips and pop, but almost everything else was provided by our fantastic family.  

The day started out pretty well - Joel and I had planned on getting to church early and we actually DID.  We unpacked and waited for the day to begin.  I had planned on feeding Dex before church, so I found an out of the way room and got to it.  But as I was burping him (not yet in his baptism outfit thank goodness!) he totally poop-sploded all over me!  It was a little upsetting, but we finally got him cleaned up and dressed - or rather, Nana got him dressed!



His outfit, made by my mom, included linen pants, cute little gerber shoes I had bought the night before from Meijer, and a satin shirt made from the same fabric as my wedding dress.  My mom went all out - kind of insanely...  But anyway, he was finally dressed and ready to go, and church was ready to begin.  

At our chuch parents can request a song or hymn to sing during the baptism.  I requested a song called "Even Before I was Born."  Through my young life at church I have been in the Jr. Choir.  Some of it was a chore singing, but I have always loved this song.  And I felt like it was absolutely perfect for the occasion.  It talks about how even before we are born God knows everything about us - our names, the numbers of the hairs on our heads, etc.  It talks about how God knows us even before our parents do and how we are special to him.  The Choir director had asked previous members to also sing - including two of my younger sisters.  It was supposed to be a surprise, but I saw them beforehand.  I still thought it was cool though.  It was a really cool surprise.  

The choir sang, we answered the questions and then we were invited up to have Dexter baptized.  He was wide awake, but didn't cry or fuss at all.  Just looked around in wonder.  



For the rest of the service he was pretty quiet as well.  That is, while daddy was playing with him the whole time on his lap!



I don't have many pictures from after the service as we were busy setting up food, eating, and cleaning up, but it was a great, and big, party!  I think we had almost 40 people there, including what seemed like one million little kids!  Dexter was passed around like a little doll, and he just slept through it all.  It was so nice that so many people could come and support Dexter!