Lorelai's "Baptism Week"

The blog has been a secondary concern in recent weeks, due to our family getting ready for my oldest daughter Lorelai's baptism. In our faith (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), eight is considered the "age of accountability," and is the minimum age at which a person may be baptized and confirmed a member of the church in full standing. We have all been scrambling around getting prepared for that special day, and my mind has been constantly dwelling on the baptism for weeks. I was hoping and praying that everything would turn out well...and now that I have time to catch my breath a little, I wanted to write about it before life got in the way again!

In the months leading up to the baptism, Nathan and I promised each other that we wouldn't "push" Lorelai into baptism before she was ready...even if that meant waiting a little while after her birthday. However, we have been pleasantly surprised and impressed by her spiritual maturation over the summer, and we both knew she was ready for baptism. She has become so much more interested in her church lessons, and in our family scripture reading. She's been eager to share her testimony. And best of all, she understands that baptism is a promise to God; Lorelai has been promising me that she'll be "good" every Sunday and always try to help others, just as she has promised to do. It has warmed my heart and made me feel very happy going forward.

Grandma Barrett made the cute dress, and our friend Deidre took the cute pictures. Thanks all!!

The timeline over the last few weeks has been crowded, but everything blessedly fell into place. Right after Lorelai turned eight (on a Monday), she was able to attend an Activity Day event with other girls her age in church (on a Wednesday). Activity Days are bi-monthly meetings for girls eight through eleven (in our ward, we have enough girls that they are divided into an older group and a younger group). At the meetings, the girls get together to socialize, learn, create, and have fun. Lorelai's first Activity Day was a "fancy dinner," in which the girls were able to have a nice dinner together and learn about manners and etiquette. The next Activity Day involved making bead necklaces. At this writing, we are preparing for her next Activity Day, which is apple-themed: she will bob for apples and make apple turnovers as a snack.

I've sometimes wondered how Lorelai will enjoy Activity Days long-term; she is my tomboy, and sometimes she wishes she could join the local Cub Scout den, which is also run through our church. Many of her boy friends are attending it, and she sometimes laments that their activities "sound cooler." However, she has really enjoyed her first few Activity Day meetings, and I have a feeling she will blossom a bit and over time will discover some of her "feminine" interests that she sometimes puts on the back burner. She has been a little shy at first, but it will be fun to hear about all her adventures in Activity Days over the years.

About two weeks before the baptism, Lorelai had her baptismal interview with our ward's bishop, Dan Bezzant. He is a great man and I worked closely with him when I served as Primary president. He is very thoughtful, gentle and kind, and I was so happy he would be the one to interview Lorelai and give her baptism the "okay." The interview went smoothly; after that, all that remained was to prepare the program for the baptism, and to prepare for my parents arriving from out of town!

My mom flew in late Tuesday night, September 3rd. After letting her sleep in a little bit the next morning, we hit the road and did some major shopping. My mother is a very generous soul, and since she'd only be with us for a few days, it was great to be spoiled by her for a little while! She kindly helped me buy some new shirts, some new ballet shoes for Aurora, and (most importantly) a new vacuum for our house! Ironically, she bought our previous vacuum for us as well, many years ago. I guess buying vacuums for us is one of her major jobs! Our old vacuum finally succumbed to old age several months ago, so the new vacuum was desperately needed! We also took mom/Grandma Nash to Celeste's dance class that afternoon, which she totally enjoyed (as much as she could while holding a zonked-out Aurora on her lap, anyway). Then, that night, the missionaries came over to give Lorelai a short (but sweet) lesson on baptism and repentance that everyone enjoyed...especially the girls! They are completely in love with the sister missionaries currently serving in our ward.

As luck would have it, our charter school was holding its annual Grandparents' Day the same weekend my mom was in town. She was very happy to go and see both Lorelai and Celeste in their classrooms, help them each out with craft projects, share a snack, and get their pictures taken together. They all had a great time.

Celeste's class made picture frames for their grandparents

Aurora got an extra frame, so she wouldn't feel left out.

She took this picture with Grandma, to fit inside the frame!

Everyone met for a snack on the grass afterwards

Celeste had so much fun with Grandma!

In Lorelai's class, Grandma read stories with her and did another art project

These two sure love each other!

I have to digress for a moment to give thanks to my mom. She has had a very busy summer; right after our family reunion in June, she and my dad decided to finally sell their home...my childhood home that they'd lived in for 32 years! They spent the whole rest of the summer frantically getting everything together, and getting ready to transition into their retirement home (which was luckily just a few short miles away). Then, in another totally unexpected event, my dad got a job...right as they were about to move!! He has been on the board of directors for a small local bank for a few years now; he was called in to choose a new CEO for that bank, in what will be a temporary (but full-time) position.

That left mom handling most of the moving details herself; a difficult task, even with ward members helping. They moved on Lorelai's birthday...August 12th, and were still half living out of boxes by the time the week of the baptism arrived. Needless to say, my mom was a little overwhelmed by having so much to do and facing so much change. I am so grateful she was such a good sport coming to Arizona after all for the baptism, and still having the energy and enthusiasm to play with the girls and work with me to do so many things. I love her and I hope she had a relaxing, enjoyable time here overall!

My father wasn't going to miss the baptism though, new job or not. He flew into town late Friday night...just in time for the baptism on Saturday morning!

In our LDS stake (the Sahuarita Stake), baptisms for eight-year-olds are usually held monthly, on the first Saturday of each month. On that day, all the kids who turned eight during the previous month will be baptized, usually with each ward taking turns using the font, and then dispersing to various other rooms in the building to do the confirmation ceremony. For this particular baptism ceremony, though, a lot of kids would be participating. Lorelai's friend Sydney, who is in our ward, actually has twin cousins in another ward who would also be baptized that same day. And by an incredible coincidence, Lorelai's school friend Clark is a part of the twin cousin's ward. So instead of going "by ward" as usual, the Sahuarita First and Fourth Wards ended up "mixing it up" so that family members and friends could get baptized together.

Lorelai with Grandpa & Grandma Barrett

Lorelai with Grandma & Grandpa Nash

Lorelai with all her grandparents!

The baptism program went wonderfully. Nathan's parents were able to attend, so both sets of Lorelai's grandparents were present. Early in the program Lorelai, Celeste, and three other girls sang the Primary song "When I Am Baptized" in front of the whole congregation. It was very sweet to see Lorelai and two other girls singing happily, dressed in their white jumpsuits for the baptism. Celeste ended up being a little shy and not singing at all, just staring blankly at the audience. And Aurora loved the song so much she started dancing gracefully through the aisles! All my girls were acting extra-adorable.

The baptism itself went off without a hitch. Nathan said all the right words, Lorelai went completely under the water after taking a deep, loud breath (in our church, we do full-immersion baptism), and we got her all dried off and dressed up in time to head to the Primary room for the confirmation portion of the program.

Lorelai chose Grandpa Nash to confirm her a member of the church. The confirmation is a special prayer said by a priesthood holder; it has some specific wording so as to grant the Gift of the Holy Ghost, yet it can also be a prayer with very specific, personal blessings for the individual. Seeing my own father give the blessing (and remembering how he did that for me at the same age, and what a wonderful experience that was) made the prayer a special experience for me.

Lorelai's last "birthday present"...her own set of scriptures!

And her very own scripture case, too!

When everything was done, I was on a spiritual high. Lorelai was happy, all the ordinances went smoothly, we had loving family members present, and we felt the Lord beaming down on all of us. It was actually a rainy Saturday (unusual for early September in Arizona), but the drizzles did nothing to dampen my mood. In fact, the spiritual boost carried on throughout the day for all of us; Lorelai got to attend the birthday party of one of her best friends that afternoon; Nathan attended a second baptism that afternoon (for a teenage convert in our ward; it was the first baptism he's presided over as ward mission leader!); and we had a large rib & brat dinner with both sets of grandparents and had some great conversation.

Our happy family post-baptism

Our silly family post-baptism

The weekend seemed over all too soon for me; the very next day I drove my parents to the airport and we said our (somewhat tearful) goodbyes. Lorelai cried too, as she always does when she says goodbye to her family living far away. But we are so glad everyone was here. We are so proud of our beautiful daughter and are so impressed watching her grow up. We are so full of love for one another. We felt the Spirit of the Lord strongly all weekend, whispering His approval to us.

We are so proud of our awesome girl.

 This baptism was definitely one of our family's "landmark events" for the year! Now that it's over, we are excited to see what the rest of 2013 will bring.