{"id":1294,"date":"2015-12-20T23:52:29","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T04:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/?p=1294"},"modified":"2015-12-30T20:40:48","modified_gmt":"2015-12-31T01:40:48","slug":"dedicated-to-the-one-i-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/?p=1294","title":{"rendered":"Dedicated to the One I Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time goes faster with each additional child. \u00a0It seems like just yesterday that I was pregnant with Miriam! \u00a0Then one day I woke up and Miriam was no longer a newborn,\u00a0Sarah was sleeping in a toddler bed and potty trained, and Rachel was on the verge of being a “tween”. \u00a0YIKES! \u00a0How did this happen?<\/p>\n

With all of this living, I almost forgot to schedule Miriam’s baby dedication. \u00a0The church that we attend is gearing up for major renovations and services will be condensed during this time, which means no baby dedications for a while. \u00a0Somehow this didn’t connect with me until about a month ago. \u00a0I almost had a mini-panic attack when I thought that Miriam could be almost a year-old before having the baby dedication. \u00a0Don’t get me wrong, it really wouldn’t matter in the long run, but it seemed better to do it before she hit the “stranger danger” phase of development.<\/p>\n

For us, baby dedications are a public declaration\/dedication of commitment to raising your child in a Christian home and to seek a “blessing” from the church. \u00a0For me, this public declaration is very comforting, because it makes the commitment of raising a child-up in the church a “community” effort. \u00a0Our family has really benefited from having others to lean on in our church community. \u00a0We live \u00a0far away from our family, and this community has been an extended family for us.<\/p>\n

I must say that my thoughts regarding raising my children in the church has evolved with each child. \u00a0I guess with each additional child your confidence grows. \u00a0When Rachel was born, I was so nervous about everything and worried about bringing her up in the right church. Her baby dedication was done at a church that we hadn’t officially joined yet but had been attending for a while. \u00a0When hadn’t officially transferred our “letter from a sister church”, but\u00a0we\u00a0were still able to participate in a significant way. \u00a0She was 6 weeks old when her baby dedication was done, and she was part of a group of other babies that were all being dedicated on that day. \u00a0 \u00a0Bryan and I were so tired the\u00a0morning of the service. \u00a0It was my first “Mother’s Day”, and Rachel had barely slept the night before! \u00a0She made up for it by sleeping through the entire baby dedication! \u00a0I will never forget how sweet this church was to us.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0890\"<\/a>

My mom had bought Rachel’s dedication dress before she was even born! \u00a0It was beautiful – it was a lacy christening\/baptismal style dress. \u00a0Never mind that our Baptist church did neither of those traditions, the dress was gorgeous!<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Rachel<\/a>

Rachel still sleeping at the end of the church service. Why wouldn’t she sleep like that at home?!?<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

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As you know, we are down in Texas and are part of a different church, and when Sarah Amelia came along, it was time to start planning another baby dedication. \u00a0Unlike the service in Kentucky, South Main Baptist does dedications with each family at a time. \u00a0I was excited about Sarah Amelia’s big day but a little sad that it might be\u00a0our last one. \u00a0Nevertheless, it was very special! \u00a0I considered re-using Rachel’s dedication dress (or one of the many lovely hand-me-downs from Rachel) but felt that was short-changing Sarah in some way. \u00a0I could just see it now – “Mom, where is the dress that I wore for my baby dedication?” \u00a0Oh wait – this was Rachel’s too?”. \u00a0Wow, that would not be cool.. \u00a0I wanted to do something pretty and traditional but steered away from the super fancy style. \u00a0As long as we had a sweet little bonnet, we were good. \u00a0After much searching, I found a dress that was appropriate for church and had a bonnet! \u00a0The dedication was wonderful and affirming, and Sarah behaved perfectly (and was awake!).<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I\u00a0<\/span>was so proud of little family and my sweet little girls!<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"My<\/a>

My sweet and lovely Sarah Amelia!<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

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As I said, Miriam’s dedication almost fell through the cracks, but we managed to get it in before she became a toddler – LOL! \u00a0It’s funny how even the smallest things can come full circle. \u00a0I briefly considered making Miriam’s dress using leftover lace from my wedding, but quickly realized that was more stress than I could handle. \u00a0Bryan thought that I should use one of Rachel or Sarah’s old dresses (again – we have a bunch of lovely dresses that would have worked), but again, it just seemed a little unfair to my sweet 3rd child. \u00a0I went dress shopping with Miriam and Sarah while Rachel was in gymnastics practice, which wasn’t a great idea. \u00a0After walking past every possible tempting\u00a0toy filled store window in our local mall, I convinced Sarah that we should keep walking until we found the right store. \u00a0We had zero luck finding a regular dress with a bonnet. \u00a0I guess bonnets are out of style in the winter, so we walked to the\u00a0other side of the mall. \u00a0Sarah played with a baby display in the store while I desperately searched. \u00a0There were lovely baptismal style dresses but no regular church dresses with bonnets. \u00a0So I purchased a very fluffy and lovely dress that was possibly a little too much, but it had the look I wanted!<\/p>\n

All this talk about dresses is not meant to overshadow the real importance of these big moments for my babies. \u00a0To say that Miriam’s dedication was a wonderful experience for us would be an understatement. \u00a0\u00a0I could see how much Bryan adores his daughters and how unbelievably devoted he is to them (and me, haha) and felt like the luckiest person in the world. \u00a0I know that is bragging, but it truly how I felt. \u00a0\u00a0 As we waited, Miriam became a little fussy and Sarah was getting squirmy, but that was ok. \u00a0 Then, just before\u00a0\u00a0walking in front of the congregation, Miriam feel asleep and slept through the entire introduction! \u00a0Rachel had been ringing handbells beforehand and joined us near the pulpit. \u00a0I couldn’t help but to think back to Rachel’s baby dedication and how she slept through the whole thing. \u00a0 \u00a0When I looked over at her and the two younger girls I almost cried, because I couldn’t believe my good fortune. \u00a0It was a moment of clarity that I am thankful to have experienced. \u00a0I typically hesitate to say “blessing” because I feel that it is used too loosely these days, but I can honestly say I felt a\u00a0“blessing” from my entire being! \u00a0My sweet and precious family – a gift and a blessing that God allows me to experience! \u00a0Since moving to Texas, we’ve expanded from a family of 3 to a family of 5 and are so thankful to have the amazing support of a warm church family. \u00a0We are so excited to continue on this walk with our girls and are very fortunate that God led us to this loving church.<\/p>\n

\"Sleeping<\/a>

Sleeping beauty (take 1, 2006)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"Sleeping<\/a>

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Sleeping beauty (2015)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"the<\/a>

the girls!<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"Our<\/a>

Our first family of 5 picture (with us all willingly in the picture)!<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time goes faster with each additional child. \u00a0It seems like just yesterday that I was pregnant with Miriam! \u00a0Then one day I woke up and Miriam was no longer a newborn,\u00a0Sarah was sleeping in a toddler bed and potty trained, and Rachel was on the verge of being a “tween”. \u00a0YIKES! \u00a0How did this happen?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1294"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1325,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions\/1325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myhusbandandkids.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}