With You This Love Begins: Baby Dedication

We couldnt have asked for a better day. The sun was shining, the trees in the back yard were a variety of beautiful fall colors and the air was a perfect fall crisp with the sun shining brightly on family and friends. It was the perfect Sunday to pray for Francesca and to unite/dedicate our little girl to God and to the church. Our family and friends gathered for the perfect little sunday afternoon. I wish I had a picture looking from the inside out that captured this day. We were blessed to have the same pastor that married Tyler and I come to my parents home. Although we do not attend his church do to the distance from our home, he seems to just understand where we are in our lives both religiously and spiritually. He successfully made another moment in our life very special and personalized. Tyler and I feel very honored to have had him be apart of Francesca's special day. He preached a little about the difference between baptism and baby dedication and choose a few stories from the bible that outline this. The purpose of a baby dedication and why we chose this over baptism is because we want our children to be able to develop a personal relationship with God and with the right guidance choose to follow the God that they feel comfortable following. Baby dedication is the starting place for developing this relationship. Eric stressed that a baby dedication is just as much about Francesca as it is about everyone who chose to be gathered with us on this day. Each person in her life will be commiting to helping her be all that God wants her to be. There was a few points that Eric had in this cerememony that hit home for me and I wanted to share them with you all. The first thing he said that we could do to help Francesca to be all that she will be is to Love one another. We must be an example to her and show her what real love is. Tyler and I must be as one and help her to feel the security that we feel when we are together. I have always felt that this is very important in a child's life. Love can be shown and heard through so many differnt forms of communication, words, gestures, feelings, emotions, etc. I think that both Tyler and I have the love for eachother that this commitment takes. Eric's words were a great reminder to both Tyler and I to remember how conneted we are. Ty and I have not had much time together since Francesca was born, and Sunday was a gentle reminder to spend more time on us as well as our little girl. The second thing that was pointed out was to teach our children well. Teach them to follow the rules, to listen to god, be there example, help them by involving there lives in the church, help them be around people that you know will teach them valuable things and also help them find and follow God. And last but not least to spend time with our children. He stressed that teaching children takes time. This part really got me thinking: Time is of so much value, I firmly believe that we must spend our time surrounded by the people that we love, those people who make us laugh and bring joy in to our lives. Surround yourself with great people the ones who trully make everyday enjoyable and worth living. Too many times, time is cut short, so we need to make the most of the time we have an spend it with those that are willing to live everyday. You dont need money to be rich in life, it does not buy happiness, it does not make good parents, it does not shape your future. What you do need and what I have been working on lately is living a rich life, which for me is filled with my small family and my few really good friends and there families. Love one another and your life to will be rich. We are so happy to have all these good people in our lives. Aunt Ellen and Uncle Arch were chosen as Francescas Godparents. They were chosen because we have love and trust in them that they will help us raise her, encouage her throughout life, be a good example for her to follow as she goes through this thing called life. We trust that they will put themselves in her life and make her better. I am so thankful for having them both in Francescas life now and into the future. Eric made sure to recongnize our Angel Great Grandma Rossi who passed just a little over a week before Francesca was born. One of my favorite Proverbs says: Grandchildren are the crown of the aged. We can only hope that Francesca will bring as much joy into the lives of others and My grandma Rossi did. I cant stress enough what a beautiful weekend it was. I am thankful for everyone who was there. Tyler and I have decided that even though the church in lake zurich is far from where we live that we want to be able to learn from Eric and the people at his church. We want to become more involved so that we can teach Francesca the right things. We are going to make and effort to become more involved in his community and in our own faith as we realize how improtant it is in todays society.

Here are the pictures from my camera! ENJOY