Baptism

The thing about social media is that everyone wants to share their best selves, and as I start to write this I feel the pull to just gloss over all the mishaps that preceded sister's beautiful baptism. But that wouldn't be the honest truth about what occurred over here as us as we prepared for this event. Starting at one week and one day before sister's baptism; I drove 7 hours to AR to visit my mother who is very ill. I arrived midnight Friday night and returned home Sunday at 8pm.

The next day was Monday, the first day of school. The first day of school at three different schools. When I went in to say good morning to Ryan, he greeted me with a cough. Sorry, son. You aren't missing the first day of school! Macey headed off to 3rd grade at Gunstream, Ryan (coughing) headed off to 6th grade at Wester, and Alex headed off to 9th grade at Centennial. (This child did not return home until 7:30pm from school because of marching band practice!)

One hour after the last kid was dropped off, Bob and June arrived at DFW. Bless them for coming to celebrate with us. And bless them for not being judgmental about the state of my house after 3 months of summer vacation and a weekend of me away. As the children trickled home we got to hear about their first days. And Ryan coughed.

Wednesday was Macey's b-day, which I already posted about. I allowed Ryan to stay home, but I was so focused on getting sister's party together, I didn't think to take him to the Dr. He had to wait until Thursday for that.

And this is where little pitfalls began to come our way. Such things as Rx not being complete or ready when we showed up at pharmacy on multiple occasions. Ryan continuing to cough after various treatments (he is still coughing today!) Waiting 1.5 hr at the Cheesecake factory for a table on a Friday night to learn that, actually, they never activated our buzzer. (We got cheesecake to-go and had In-N-Out instead!) The bundt cake, my grandmother's recipe which I wanted to share at our luncheon, sticking to the pan, big time; it was destroyed after it was removed from the pan causing me to pitch the whole thing without tasting it! Dan didn't realize he needed to bring whites for the baptism and had to dash home to get them. The register not working at Raising Cane's when B&J went to pick up our catering order for the luncheon. I failed to show up for a Cub Scout Awards ceremony when I had the awards. All humbling, but mostly just annoying. And compared to the hurricane and flood victims from hurricane Harvey, which occurred the same weekend, these little things are insignificant. And as Dan said, 'Macey got baptized, and that is what really matters.' AMEN

 Macey was baptied and confirmed by her dad. Two other children were baptized from our ward on this day; Brayden and Gibson. Being Primary President I felt like I should speak at this special event. It wasn't my best talk, but I talked about the 4th Article of Faith and what that means to the saints.

Here we all are. A happy Mormon family. (Oh, and Ryan did cough, but not a lot during the service. He says he held it in.)

Us with our out of town guests Uncle Mike and Gma and Gpa Black.

 This is our buddy Judy Curts from Plano 8th ward. We love Judy! We also had the DeLucias, Nguyens, and LuJean Pardoe (Macey's sunbeam teacher!) come from Plano.

 Felicity and Megan! Some of the best friends we have!

 Here we are just before sister went in the water with dad.

 The cake fail happened at 10pm the night before. June and I were thinking of ways we can get a cake on Saturday morning. I said, 'I just can't worry about that right now. I'm calling Felicity!' Truth is, any of my friends would have stepped up, but I can always count on Felicity in my times of need. I called her an hour before the baptism and shared my sob story with her. I asked her to pick up any cake wherever she could easily get one and mentioned that sister would like red velvet, but at this point we are not going to be picky! This dear friend went and picked up this red velvet nothing bundt cake for us. It was an answer to prayer! It was delicious. It was the kindest thing that happened to us that day!

 Ellie, Macey, Megan, Mia and Sophia.

Raising Cane's and pre-made salads from Costco. Perfect!

 I love these ladies. I don't know why I didn't have Stephanie and Marcela get in this picture, but these 4 ladies help me keep my sanity, love my children, encourage me to be a better mother (and sometimes housekeeper!) Moving to Plano brought them in my life and I am so glad for our 4 year sojourn there!

Grandma June's comforter blanket for Macey's baptism. The kids each have one now. We are all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We are on our way to Eternal Life together!