Brooklyn's Baptism

Brooklyn turned 8 in August and in our church that is the youngest that we baptize. She has been looking forward to this day for a long time and was so excited that the day was FINALLY here. She knew that she could be baptized when she was 8 and so ever since August she has been "waiting and waiting".

We took her to Kiddie Kandids for a special photo shoot to remember the special day and that is the first picture shown, but all of the rest of the pics are from Saturday.

Our Stake Youth Baptisms are always at 6:30 pm, once a month on Saturday night. Brooklyn was really cute all day long waiting for 6:30 to arrive. She knew it was after dinner, so when I started cooking she got really excited.

Aaron baptized her.

We made sure to get a lot of special pictures of her and her dad. She is so fortunate to have such a loving and good guy for her dad. I know that she will always love him and I know that she will be a better person her whole life through because of his example and goodness.

I sure did a good job of picking a dad for my kids!

Brooklyn and Aaron were all ready to go into the baptismal font.
We

had a great service with short talks on why Jesus taught us that we need to be baptized and also on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I sang a song, and Aaron's mom accompanied me on the piano. It was nice to be able to participate in the program.

We had so many friends and family there! Thanks to all of you that came. (We realize it was a sacrifice for many considering it was during a BSU game.)

She entered the water and met Aaron there. It went perfectly. All the other children gathered at the edge of the water and could see her. The adults were gathered behind the kids and I couldn't have asked for a lovelier moment.

Aaron said the words for the baptism perfectly (he hadn't ever baptized anyone in English before). I suppose he could have done it in Mandarin Chinese like he did on his mission, but I expect that it would not have had the same meaning for Brooklyn.

After she was submerged in the water, she came to me and my mom at the edge of the font into the dressing room. The first words out of her grinning mouth were, "That was soggy." She had a huge smile and the photo of her here, wet and happy shows her feelings at the moment.

After the service we headed home for an open house. It was so nice to have an "open house" for some reason other than to try an find someone to buy our house. Open House has only had a real estate definition for us the past few years. Yea! We get to clean the house for people we know this time! We have cleaned our house over the past two years way too many times to count for strangers to come and see. I'm so glad we are through that stage of our life!

We enjoyed the remainder of the night with good friends and family, cookies and Therese's yummy salsa. It couldn't have been a better night.

I am happy that Brooklyn is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It has made me happy in my life and I hope the same for all my children.