Natalie's Baptism

We had a pretty wonderful day this past Saturday. We had all of Jared's family here visiting and we also had two of my sisters and their families come to visit.  There was a great reason for all of this family togetherness - Natalie was being baptized! She has been looking forward to her baptism for a long time and for the past month or so has invited anyone she meets to come to her baptism. We are so grateful that Natalie chose to be baptized and that she was as excited about her choice as we were!



I'm also feeling grateful that this little white dress somehow made it through five girls and two transatlantic moves in one piece and still looks somewhat decent!



Of all our children, Natalie was the least nervous/most excited about her baptism. She was ready to jump right in before the font was even filled. Well almost ready, she wasn't took happy about Jared pretending to throw her in!

Because the baptism was just two days after Christmas, we weren't sure that we'd have very many people take Natalie up on all those invitations she handed out. When it was time for the service to start it was just our family members, our friends from down the street, and the Bishop. At some point between then and when we all got up to go the font the room had filled up and we were scrambling to find more chairs for everyone. I am so grateful to have moved to an area with such a supportive and loving ward, it has definitely made the adjustment to a new home easier on our family.

Natalie's sisters played a big role in making her baptism service so special. Emily and Natalie planned the entire thing as part of a Personal Progress project that Emily was working on. I was able to defer to Emily in almost all things baptism related and knew that everything would turn out well. From making refreshments to creating the program and a lot of other things in between, Emily had it covered.  Madison played the piano for the opening and closing songs, Abigail led the music, and Samantha gave a wonderful talk on baptism. My only responsibilities were helping Natalie change into dry clothes after the ordinance and giving a talk about the Holy Ghost.

It was a beautiful, sunny day for our beautiful, sunny Natalie and one I hope she will never forget!

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