Baby Dedication

Last night, our church had an amazing baby dedication.  It was wonderful to have both sets of grandparents and good friends there with us, and the program was just beautiful.

It was a special treat that the babies' Aunt Mary and cousin Elizabeth were able to join us from California.  Mary was visiting her family in Georgia, so she came up to North Carolina for a night to be at the dedication with us.  It was so great to see her and to see how big Elizabeth has gotten since the last time we saw her (in Georgia at Christmas).  Elizabeth is about 5 weeks ahead of our babies, so it's fun to get a sense of what our babies may be doing in only a couple months.  A huge thanks to Aunt Mary for trekking up here with her 8-month-old baby to be with us - it means so much to us!

As part of the preparation for the dedication, Jason and I had to decide on 5 values and 2 habits that we would like our new family of four to focus on.  After coming up with a long list, we finally whittled our values down to the following five (in no particular order):

• Honesty - We would like our family to be honest with one another.  We also want our children to be able to be their authentic selves with us and to know that we will always love the people that they are.
• Compassion - We would like to teach our children to be compassionate of other people, to remember that each person has a story and to reach out to other people to share God's love with  them.
• Thankfulness - Our family should remember that every good gift comes from God and be thankful to Him for all that He has given us.  We also want to remember to be thankful to other people for all that they do.
• Hard Work - We want to teach our children that hard work is important and pays off - whether it be in your education, work, relationships with other people or any aspect of life, really.
• Generosity - Our family should be generous with other people.  We should share the gifts that have been given to us generously with those around us.  

Our two habits are:

• Service - We would like to find ways to serve other people on a regular basis - whether it's serving dinner at the Durham Rescue Mission or volunteering at church or anywhere else.
• Healthy Living - Anyone who knows us knows that we value healthy living, including regular exercise and time outside.  We see healthy living as a way of being a good steward of the bodies that God has given us.  This also includes healthy eating (and Jason is way ahead of me on that!!).

22 babies were dedicated at this service.  The program included cute video clips, a slideshow of the baby pictures, some encouraging words and awesome music.  It was a wonderful evening to celebrate the gift of these babies and to link arms with our family and friends to raise Miles and Vivienne to love God.

Here are a few photos from the evening.

Granddad covers up our sweet little guy so that he doesn't spit up on his cute little outfit.

Oh, the cuteness!

The Four Foxes at our table.

Aunt Mary and Cousin Elizabeth

They made a photo collage of all the babies on the big screen.  22 babies were dedicated at this program.

The centerpieces were adorable.  They had a little container with gravel and soil and our little cherubs sprouting out of the dirt.

Aunt Mary & Miles

Grandma Lila and Vivienne

My good friends held sleeping babies after the service.

Some of our closest friends were there with us.