Don't Release a Runaway Circus Animal Without Some Identification from the Claimant

Where does the time go?  Negligent blogger alert, yet again!  I have had some inspiration, though ... perhaps, instead of my usual long, wordy make-up post, I will just write several short posts, hopefully spread out throughout the week?  That's the plan, anyway.  So, onward:  what's been going on in the Ward household since you last checked in on us?

We had a big moment in our lives, especially in Jones' life:  he was baptized on Sunday, October 23, 2011.



The Marquee ... y'all should know I'm a fan of a monogram, I do so love seeing Little Bit's name in print :o)



The actual moment of baptism



Pastor Roy and Jones

After the baptism, prayer

The Ward Family, Pastor Roy, and Pastor Gail

This will sound silly or, more likely, naive, but I was really surprised by how moved I was by the whole act of baptism, the ceremony of all of it, really knowing what it means and how special it is.

Jones wore a family heirloom christening gown.  It was hand made for Richard (Alan's dad, Grandpa Richard) for his dedication, by a family member.  Richard wore it when he was dedicated, and Alan wore it when he was dedicated, and now Jones has worn it for his baptism.  It is a beautiful little gown, very delicate, and it (much to my relief) fit him really well.  He looked like a little angel, or the Gerber baby :o).  I carried him up onto the stage at church wrapped in the prayer shawl that was used at mine and Alan's wedding.  I have two other prayer shawls that I considered for the event - one was given to me when I was put into the hospital the first time during my pregnancy, and I brought it back with me when I went into the hospital the last time, when I was in for good until Jones was born.  The second was given as a gift to Jones from the church, upon his birth.  They are all special, obviously, but I liked the symbolism of using the prayer shawl from our wedding - we started out our family as two people, in a church, in the presence of God and family and friends, and now we've added to our family and we are blessing our new little family member, in a church, in the presence of God and family and witnesses.

It was a beautiful ceremony, very traditional, a little formal, but the good kind of formal.  Jones did great.  Honestly, I was never worried about it, but Alan was terrified that he would have a fit during the baptism, so he made me load Jones up - I managed to get him to eat an entire 8 ounce bottle and an entire serving of pears about an hour before everything took place, so that took the fear that he would get hungry and start throwing a fit out of the equation (personally, I was mildly concerned that he might spit up or take a giant poop during it all but, thankfully, he did not).  Anyway:  Jones was stellar.  Prior to us going upon stage, there was a performance by the hand bell choir (quite a treat!) and the choir solo, and Jones was absolutely enthralled by it - he loves music and singing, and it was so sweet to see him so captivated by it.  You could tell he was wondering just what exactly we were doing going up on the stage, but he handled it like a champ.  He was quiet and pretty still for all of the prayers and for the affirmations (he gnawed on my hand during pretty much all of it ... poor kid is teething pretty intensely), and he was totally fine being handed over to Pastor Roy, and he just looked around in wonder when the actual baptism with the water occurred.  After the actual baptism, Pastor Roy walked him all around the sanctuary, showing him all of the parishioners and talking about how special Jones is and how special baptism is.  Jones loved it - he looked all around, very curious about all of the people and the lights and the architecture and the colors - he was fascinated by all of it, and never made a peep (we are so lucky Jones is an easy baby, and doesn't have any stranger anxiety ... yet ...). 

Pastor Roy talked about how everyone had been praying for Jones since before he was born and, as I was already in an emotional state, that about sent me over the edge because of the powerful truth of it (I managed to keep it together ... crying in public, actually, crying in front of any witnesses is like one of my least favorite things ever).  We didn't tell a soul about the pregnancy until I was 12 weeks along, except that I told Roy and Gail, on a prayer card.  I turned in a prayer card every week that I was at church from the time I knew I was pregnant.  They all said pretty much the same thing:  please pray for a healthy, uneventful pregnancy and a healthy baby.  Prayer is a beautiful thing.  It may not have been the healthiest pregnancy, and I don't think it can be classified as uneventful, but I made it through just fine, and so did Jones.  In retrospect, I was really naive about the problems with my pregnancy - honestly, I just never even considered that anything bad was going to happen to me or to Jones, even after reading all of the scary stuff about high blood pressure in pregnancy, and preeclampsia and eclampsia and HELP syndrome.  So maybe that's naive.  Or maybe that is the power of prayer.  I prayed, along with all of our friends and family, and that kept me from worrying about the problems we had, or from worrying about something happening to Jones (because, really, isn't worrying really a form of Satan stealing your joy/letting him into your life/testing your faith?).  All of those prayers ... they made sure we were fine.  And so it was.  I also remembered Roy and Gail coming to visit me in the hospital - they came frequently, considering how busy they are, since our church has a pretty large congregation to tend to.  I remember walking Roy down to the nursery to see Jones (when he was in the incubator, and they weren't letting me have him except for little 30 minute visits every so often, right after he was born) and Roy's reaction upon seeing him for the first time was to tell me that he could tell just from looking at him that he was going to be special.  He already is, of course, to us, but that will always stick with me, that simple and powerful statement.  I just love Roy and Gail.  They are such good leaders, and are so warm and so ... approachable?  I don't know, that seems like the best word for what I'm trying to describe.  Anyway, they've been so wonderful to Alan and Jones and I, a wonderful blessing for our little family.  All of this was running through my mind during the baptism, the journey we went through to have Jones and it really comes down to one of my favorite things I've ever heard Pastor Roy say:  "If the only prayer you say is, 'Thank You', that is enough."

We kept Jones with us for the rest of the service.  He did start to get cranked up after that, but I managed to get him to go to sleep ... hilariously enough, I was kind of rocking him, and trying to make sure he kept his pacifier in (it helps to calm him down and zone him out when he's tired but fighting it), and I was starting to think I was going to have to take him to the nursery when he let out a big toot (and it was, of course, at one of those moments in a church service when everything is absolutely still and quiet), then let out a surprised cry, as if he did not understand where that noise came from and was really offended by it, and then, seriously, he just passed out, right after that moment.  I got pretty tickled and it was hard to hold it in, but I managed:  it's church, after all.

After the service, we took pictures with everyone.

From left to right:  my parents, my grandparents, Alan, Jones, and I, and Alan's parents

The Tanner Clan:  my aunt, Sydney, Dad (holding Jones), Mom, and Me

With Alan's older brother, Rick, his wife Kim, and their son, our nephew, Jonah Aaron

After church, we went back to our house and had brunch, which was delicious, if I do say so myself, and was actually pretty stress-free, given that there were ten guests at our house.  We did a breakfast casserole that was so good, I'm definitely going to make it again and I'll take pictures and share the recipe.  Normally, I'm the kind of person who likes to do centerpieces and special place settings and all of that kind of stuff, but time just got away from me in this case, so we just did very casual buffet-style.  I kind of hate that I didn't go all out, but I was just too tired to make a big production out of the brunch (by big production, I'm referring to decorations-wise, I guess), and I don't think anybody judged me for it :o). It was nice to spend time with family, as always, and we were so glad to get to spend time with Jonah - he's such a hoot, he's really into superheroes (Spiderman, Batman, Superman, the Green Lantern) and Transformers, and Star Wars.  He had about 20 Star Wars figurines, and several light sabres, and he spent a lot of the weekend showing off his ninja-esque Star Wars moves.  Funny story:  Kim told Jonah that he could not take Star Wars figurines to church, and confiscated several off of him before going inside.  However, Jonah's pants had some cargo pockets that she didn't check, so Luke Skywalker and Han Solo and Darth Vader and some storm troopers visited FUMC in Russellville. 

That's been one big event in our household over the past 3 weeks.  Since this is a sort of heartfelt, warm and fuzzy kind of post, in closing I'll share something from my devotional, from during my stay in the hospital, waiting to have Jones, that really resonated with me, and still does (it seems appropriate to share on this post); I was by myself a lot in the hospital at nighttime, and would get lonely, and I was feeling kind of pitiful and sorry for myself on this one particular night, and I got out my devotional (if you are curious, it is Jesus Calling:  Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young, given to me by a woman that I feel that God sent into my life to help Alan and I really bond with our church family and make church a more central part of our family ... it's really just funny how that sort of stuff happens/works out) and Bible for my evening meditation and prayers, and this is what I read:

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you.  Hear me saying Peace, be still to your restless heart.  No matter what happens, I will never leave you or forsake you.  Let this assurance soak into your mind and heart, until you overflow with Joy.  Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, you need not fear.  Even though you don't know what will happen tomorrow, you can be absolutely sure of your ultimate destination.  I hold you by your right hand, and afterward I will take you into Glory."

See, now? Prayer:  a beautiful thing.