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Rory Mark and Patrick Jefferson were dedicated at our Spring Baptist Church. Baby dedication is such a precious time in which a child’s parents and family/friends vow to raise the child (or in our case children) in a Christian home and teach the values of our faith and God’s love. We are so proud of our boys (all three!) and were so happy and excited for the opportunity to dedicate Rory and Patrick at our church this weekend. Spring Baptist does such a beautiful job of making dedication services special. There is a reception for family and encouragers prior to the service where each family gets a table with a cake, snacks and some beautiful take aways including a decorative frame with the child’s bible verse chosen by the parents. I am so in love with the verses we chose for our boys!
For Rory…..a very passionate verse for an already passionate little boy. We so so much personality in him and know he will have the power to be such a positive influence on others if lead in a positive and loving Christian home.
For Patrick…..I call him my brave, strong boy. He has been through so much so early. After every shot I gave him during his 6+ weeks on Lovenox, I would tell him “Your so brave”. That little face never lost its light and so we chose a verse that focuses on the strength.
My mother in law knows how much I love to dress my three boys up in precious little outfits for these occasions so she presented us with a couple of months ago as we were planning the boys’ dedication. The outfits are amazing and I had so much fun getting photos of the boys before we left for church.
Rory looking quite dapper in his Sunday best.
I love that cute little smile peaking out.
Oh so handsome.
Mama and her “Baby A”
Elijah looked adorable in his green and white romper!
Beautiful boy!
Mama and her “Baby B”
Patrick enjoying a brief nap.
We have such happy kids.
Another beautiful Parish baby.
One of the neat hings our church does is asks the parents to name encouragers for their children. These are people that will pray for your child on a regular basis and vow to, well, encourage them in all they do. We are so blessed to have such a big group of family and friends who already are such an important (and spiritual) part of our boys’ lives and we were happy to ask them to do us the honor of being encourages.
Patrick and Rory’s encouragers are:
Janet & Latheal Parish – Grandparents
Janet Shook – Great Grandmother
Robin Estep – A friend of our family and a great mentor to me
Shannon Stellhorn – One of my midwives and dearest friends
Daniel Baker – Close friend of Chips and our family
Elizabeth Sutherland – Lifelong friend to me
Katie McCorkle – Dear friend of our family
Trish and Rick Warner – Lifelong friends to Chip’s parents and friends and mentors for our family
We were blessed to have most of the encouragers able to be there for the event. We misses Elizabeth Sutherland…who lives in Chicago and Shannon Stellhorn who has the busy life of a midwife and was called away by duty but we know they were with us in heart!
The rest of us enjoyed the hour long reception prior to the service and all the yummy food and punch! Elijah had so much fun interacting with all of our friend and family and enjoyed the open space of the gym where the reception was held. At the conclusion of the reception, each family was asked to pray over they children being dedicated. Chip lead our family in a beautiful prayer focusing on our hopes for our boys that they claim their salvation at an early age and their lives are full of knowledge of Christ’s love for them, that they use their talents to glorify Him and then we prayed these things also for their future spouse, which we have done since they were conceived. I am blessed with such an amazing mother in law and I am looking forward to playing that part myself one day and I think about the mates to my children that I will one day welcome to our family. Such a fun thing to pray for.
Rory’s cake and page from the program. Chip smiled when he saw the photo and said I picked very biblical looking pictures of our boys. Okay, what he really said was that they looked like baby Jesus. That made me smile.
Patrick’s cake and photo. His photo is more angelic I think.
Danny and Mallory have been so good to our boys….including Wrigley!
We are so grateful to Katie for her beautiful caring heart. She is always interested in our children and even brags about our boys!
We are grateful Granny could be here to share in our joy.
I get so overwhelmed when I think about how much I wanted THIS those first twelve days without our Patrick. Our arms and hearts are now so full.
Patrick loved the attention from Trish. She had him smiling and laughing all evening.
Granny enjoyed getting to spoil Elijah
Big fun for Elijah was running around on the stage.
Rory has eyes for Grandmother
Love my friend
Just some Parish guys hanging out.
Apparently Elijah and Mallory wore eachother out
After the reception and a photo op, we all went to the sanctuary for the service. The parents and babies waited in the lobby and were presented one at a time. It was just so awesome to see all these amazing little faces in their Sunday best beginning their journey that will (hopefully) one day lead them to accepting Christ. It is quite surreal. I am happy to report that all three boys behaved so well and we were able to fully focus on the meaning of the service. Prior to the baby dedication portion of the service, there were two (full submersion) baptisms. Elijah, being in the sanctuary with the rest of the congregation, witnessed these two people getting dunked and after each one yelled out “Oh no!”. He was very concerned. That was our comic relief for the evening, That and him yelling out HI RORY to his little brother when we were standing at the front of the church. That’s my boy!
Enjoying some Grandmother time.
Pastor Mark with the newest and littlest Parishes
Pastor Mark with the newest and littlest Parishes
