Child Dedication

This past Sunday, January 16, we dedicated Avery at church.  It was a fun, meaningful time for Matt and I to stand before our church family and say that we are committing to raise Avery up to follow the Lord with all of her heart.  It a world where success, beauty, money, talent, good grades, good looks, and popularity are our gods, it is a tall task.  Thankfully where I'm weak, He is strong and in my weakness He can show His strength (if you didn't catch it, the capital "H" signify God). :)  It was also a cool experience because Matt and I have really grown to love our church, Calvary.  At the same time that we were committing to raise Avery up to love God, our church was committing to help us along in that task.  And, Avery's baby-crush Miles got dedicated the same service!  It was fun having this experience with our dear friends Peggy and Aaron.

Anyway, my prayer for Avery since even before she's been born is that she would always know the depths of God's love for her - that his love for her does not depend on her performance and that nothing she does can change that. 

So Avery, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowldge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."  (Ephesians)

Here's a video of the whole thing... warning: it's long!



(A special thanks to Nealy, Kyle, Callie, and Clara for cheering us along!)

Here's the picture of Avery that we used in the service.

And last, a picture of the fam at home after church.  (both pictures taken by... Nealy!  Surprise surprise!)