Ellie's dedication

This past Sunday was Ellie's dedication at our new church in Missouri. Here are some pictures and what it means to us.

Lord, thank you for the gift you have given us in our children.
They are such a blessing to us and they bring us so much joy.

You have entrusted us to nurture these little ones and to show them Your love.
We commit our roles as parents to You.
Please, God, help us to care for our children as You have cared for us...
with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control.

Help us to show Benjamin and Elizabeth what it means to follow Jesus 

in the way we live out our lives each day...

in the way we love You, in the way we love them, and in the way we love others.
Help us to teach them about You...
Your goodness, Your holiness, Your grace, mercy and love.

Lord, we pray that Benjamin and Ellie will understand that Jesus lived and died and rose from the dead so that they could have salvation and experience fellowship with You, the One True God.

 

We ask that they will come to know and follow Jesus at an early age so that they can spared from a life apart from You and so that they can experience true freedom, fullness of life and Your unending love.
Keep Your hand upon these little ones and work through us as we raise them.

Amen.

Ticking away.

I am in the midst of that bittersweet task of washing up cute new baby clothes and packing up tiny little outfits that are now too small. How is it that my baby girl is already so big? The bulk of my afternoon was spent washing new larger clothes and folding up all of the smaller sizes and placing them in cardboard boxes. It seemed like each little piece I put away made my eyes water a touch. Even now as I'm writing this I find myself feeling a little sad about the fact that the first weeks and months of my little girl's life have gone by so quickly. Too quickly. And yet I am so delighted to watch Ellie grow and learn and develop each day. It's pure joy watching her little body fill out, seeing her darling smile, and hearing hear sweet voice as she coos and sings.

There were a few boxes in the basement that house Benjamin's baby clothes, so I dug through those and pulled out any gender neutral items that Ellie could wear. As I sorter through the boxes another wave of emotions came as it hit me, really hit me, that my Ben-Ben is no longer a baby. He's a little boy. Not only are the days and months going by too quickly, but now so are the years. Wasn't it just yesterday that he was wearing this little sleeper and that small sweatsuit? Now he can say the ABC's and he sleeps in a big boy bed and can talk up a storm.

Time keeps ticking away. Each day in this journey of motherhood brings a smile to my face and joy to my heart and I sometimes wish I could just freeze time, or at least slow it down a bit. Of course not every moment feels that way...like when I'm scrubbing poo out of Ellie's clothing or when Benjamin is smearing jelly in is hair. Let's be real here. Not everything about motherhood is magical. But generally speaking it's all going a little too fast for me. If time's not going to slow down (which doesn't appear to be happening since it's almost time for dinner already), then I hope I can truly savor every little moment I spend with Ben and Ellie and cherish each day we have together. Next thing I know I'll be sending Benjamin off to college and watching Ellie as she heads out the door for prom.