A couple of weeks ago, we had one of the most important times of our lives since having children: we dedicated our girls to the Lord at church. It was beautiful, humbling and so special.

 

Some people are not familiar with baby/child dedication, so I will share what that looks like for us in our church and what we believe. This is a very simple statement that we, Eric and I, chose to do to publicly dedicate our children and our lives to raising them for the glory of God and to do our best to raise them to follow Him. This is in no way an act of salvation or baptism, but more a testament to our desire to raise our kids in a Godly home. The congregation then had an opportunity to respond to our desire to do so and they also agree to help us do this in any way they can.

 

We have looked forward to this day for so long for a few reasons. First of all, we never had Nora dedicated as an infant. At the time, we didn’t really have a “home church” and knew that we would be moving in the next year. We wanted to dedicate her somewhere that was semi-permanent for us; somewhere that we knew we would be surrounded by those people for a long time. Of course, from the DAY that we saw those two pink lines on that pee stick, we started praying for our little baby, that he/she would be born healthy and would grow to accept the Lord as their own someday, so we had already vowed to ourselves and each other to raise our babies in a Godly home. This was just an outward expression of that desire. And we are BEYOND blessed with our church home here in Milford. It is truly what we have been praying for for years.

 

The second reason, for me, was that I had been longing to do this with my own kids since I was small. It might sound weird, but I have always known that I wanted to be a mom. And whenever I saw other parents dedicating their children to the Lord, I knew how special it was and how important it was to raise my kids to love and fear God, and I knew I wanted to do the same someday.

 

Anyways….

 

The day before the child dedication, wouldn’t you know it, we got a foot of snow/ice and below freezing temperatures. The number of people in church that day were few, but it made it that much more intimate and special. It was even more special that our entire small group braved the terrible weather and was there to support us. I can’t even begin to tell you how much that meant to me.

 

The pictures are so blurry and the poorest of quality, but still special none the less. Our pastor, Audrun, was the one who did the dedication and he made it so awesome. His message was full of truth and encouragement.

 

He took each of the girls in his arms and prayed a special blessing over each of them. Andersyn didn’t cry at all the entire service. It was truly a miracle. Seriously, the girl cries way more than she should 😉

 

We then got to sign certificates to represent our special day. I can’t wait to get them framed and hung up in our new house!

 

And now a whole bunch of family pictures. I am so grateful our family could be here to witness and celebrate this special day!

 

Grandpas playing with their girls

 

It was the most blessed weekend. I hope and pray that we can continue to raise our girls in a home where Jesus’ name is spoken often and His truth is always on our lips. We know that these girls are His, not ours, and that we have the important responsibility of raising them for His glory. What a gift our girls are to us!