{"id":522,"date":"2013-12-01T19:28:19","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T02:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/?p=522"},"modified":"2013-12-01T19:28:19","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T02:28:19","slug":"aftons-baptism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/2013\/12\/01\/aftons-baptism\/","title":{"rendered":"Afton’s Baptism"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was Afton’s baptism and confirmation yesterday. Although Afton has a friend in the ward who was born the same day as her, his family decided to wait until next month for his baptism, so the service was just for Afton. Since it was just us and it was Thanksgiving weekend, arranging for the program was a little bit of a challenge. Fortunately, Afton’s piano teacher, Sister Poulsen, was able to play for us, which relieved one major stress. It was also the first baptismal service in our ward since getting a new primary presidency and a new bishopric, but things went very smoothly.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dad
Dad and Afton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shannon loved being able to help Afton get dressed in her white baptismal clothes since that had been up to me for Ethan<\/a> and Gerrit<\/a>. Shannon’s allergies must have been acting up or something, though, because her eyes kept getting watery.<\/p>\n

When Grandpa Smith was visiting us recently, he was talking about football, commenting that a particular quarterback can run the ball well, but his coaches don’t let him. Afton wisely replied, “Well, if you can’t run, skipping is pretty good.” As such, knowing that she shouldn’t run in the chapel, Afton instead skipped all over the place welcoming friends. It was pretty clear she was excited.<\/p>\n

When we entered the baptismal font together, some of our prior practice seemed to have been forgotten. When I asked Afton if she was ready, she said, “Now?” and was ready to dunk herself under water. I managed to keep her from doing so while I said the prayer, but when I told her to hold her nose after that, she didn’t catch on for a few seconds so I went ahead and immersed her. Coming out of the water she sputtered, “Oh, I forgot to plug my nose!”<\/p>\n

\"Mom,<\/a>
Mom, Dad and Afton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We let Afton choose the music for the service. When we were planning, she said there was a song that was her very favorite, but she couldn’t remember the title or any of the words — just that it “went up like a balloon at the end.” Eventually she remembered that it was on her primary music CD, so we discovered it was If the Savior Stood Beside Me<\/em> by Sally DeFord. Since it isn’t in the Children’s Songbook, I decided to sing that one as a solo rather than have everyone sing something that might not be familiar to them. This is a slightly different version, but I’m sure I sounded just as good \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/if-the-savior-stood-beside-me-james-loynes.mp3<\/a><\/audio>
\nIt’s hard to believe that all our babies aren’t babies anymore, but we’re so happy that they’ve all entered the gate to help us be an eternal family.<\/p>\n

Shannon’s Thoughts<\/h2>\n

To me, it felt like a perfect day. It\u2019s funny to say that because so many of the people we truly love weren\u2019t able to be there. I missed my parents\u2014they\u2019ve been able to attend the boys\u2019 baptisms. The pang first struck me upon seeing my Uncle Richard. Although he has more of it, his hair has turned the exact same beautiful white silver as my dad\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Living as far away as we do I\u2019m pretty accustomed to hosting family get-to-togethers and generally pretending I\u2019m a capable adult but I missed them again in the kitchen putting together lunch for our family and friends.<\/p>\n

Eric welcomed my Aunt Jeri and Uncle Richard into our home and said, \u201cMake yourself comfortable and have a seat.\u201d I called from the kitchen, \u201cEric misspoke, what he really meant was \u2018come help me\u2019.\u201d And they did. Richard set up folding chairs while Jeri sliced rolls and whatever else I put in front of her. Our niece Kayla made drinks and, like a hundred times before, did anything that I needed.<\/p>\n

\"To<\/a>
To the Font<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ethan gave a talk on baptism. I admit it, I was worried. I wasn\u2019t at all sure he\u2019d actually prepared a talk. I was a little afraid he was planning teenager style, to just wing it– but he wasn\u2019t. Ethan told Afton that baptism is what we need to do to follow Jesus\u2019 example. He remembered, \u201cGrandpa told me at my baptism that I needed to write in my journal so I could always remember it and also that if I\u2019d write in my journal I didn\u2019t have to set the table.\u201d My parents influence was there even if they couldn\u2019t be. It made me cry again and it was perfect.<\/p>\n

Afton said she felt nervous about her baptism but to me it looked more like joy just leaking out of her. I remembered the joy Eric and I felt at her birth. When our sons were baptized Eric got to help them dress in white and then get them dry after their baptism. I didn\u2019t know how special those few minutes after her baptism would feel. I was so happy to get to share in Afton\u2019s joy and be there to welcome her into Heavenly Father\u2019s church to share this covenant with her.<\/p>\n

So I admit to feeling just a little melancholy and crying more than a little, but my baby got baptized and there was so much good about the day it outweighed any sadness and was a perfect day.<\/p>\n

\"afton-baptism-montage\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Program\"<\/a>
Program<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was Afton’s baptism and confirmation yesterday. Although Afton has a friend in the ward who was born the same day as her, his family decided to wait until next month for his baptism, so the service was just for Afton. Since it was just us and it was Thanksgiving weekend, arranging for the program … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Afton’s Baptism”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-familynews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}