As always, this was a few weeks ago...
A few times a year our church has a Child Dedication Day where the parents take their children up on stage and make a promise to raise their children in the church and dedicate them to God. Beforehand the families are interviewed and it's all made into a short video for the congregation to watch. Our church does a child dedication instead of a baptism because we believe that a person should be baptized when they make the decision to let Jesus into their hearts. So we hope and pray that our girls will one day make that decision but until then, Ben and I have made a promise to raise them in the church and guide them towards Jesus.
We dedicated our girls on June 5, 2016 and we were blessed to have our family and friends come to the dedication. It meant so much to have them there: our parents, most of our siblings, my grandparents, and close friends. After the video was shown of the families, the parents and children came up on stage and recited a dedication. Then our families and friends came up and prayed with us before it ended.
Hard to see but we're in the middle. Natalie kept staring at the little boy next to us and Noelle kept trying to get down or pick her nose haha!
And with our family and friends!
This picture was taken about a month before at our taping session.
After the service Brian and Kim graciously hosted everyone over to their house for lunch and it was delicious! The girls received a few gifts like books, Veggie Tales DVDs, money, a pretty jewelry box and a bracelet. Ben and I also got the girls each a gift but I didn't order it until a few days before so it didn't get there quite in time. We got them each a pearl bracelet with a heart charm and on one side of the charm is their name and on the other side of the charm is the verse we picked out for them. For Natalie we chose Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose." and for Noelle we chose Psalm 86:11-12, "Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. 12 I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever." We hope that our daughters will use these verses to guide them in their walk with the Lord one day.
Trying to get a picture of the two of them looking at the cake and not touching it was difficult!
Noelle sipping sweet tea with her Great Pop-pop.
They both really liked taking the little ballerina off the post inside the jewelry box.
These are the jewelry boxes we gave them. The top is engraved with their name and the child dedication date.
Their bracelets
We really enjoyed dedicating Natalie and Noelle and were very blessed to have our friends and family there not only to witness it but to also hold us accountable in our roles as parents. I attempted to upload the video to Youtube so you can try the link here to see if it works!
We've had a lot more going on since the beginning of June and I'm hoping to get all caught up now that school is out for the summer!
