Lily's Life: Lily's dedication

We had an extra special weekend! This was the Sunday that we dedicated Lily to the Lord before our Church. We had invited our friends and family to be there and asked many people to pray for us. This was a very special event for our family - not only dedicating Lily to the Lord...for Him to protect her and draw her to Himself all the days of her life....but also a time where Joe and I made a committment to raise her in the ways of Christ. She truly is a heritage and a reward from the Lord (Psalm 127:3) and we want to honor God as her parents. In Ephesians 6:4 God encourages us to "bring (her) up in the training and instruction of the Lord" and that is our prayer....that we will fulfill that command. And we had so many of our friends and family there to agree that they will do the same in Lily's life...be a witness for Christ.

During baby dedications our Pastor always tells the meaning of the baby's name and that was a very special part of the service for me personally. Some of you know how God gave us the name Lily....so I won't go into the whole story but it was during a time in my life that He was dealing with alot of things in my past and getting me over the shame of it all. He was healing and restoring me and telling me that I am clean and pure through the blood and forgiveness of Christ. And He gave me a promise that I would have a baby girl and her name would be Lily. So...when Pastor Joel said that Lily's name means "purity"....well, you can imagine how that impacted me. I had no idea that her name meant that! Oh Jesus, you are so good and Your grace is overwhelming. I'm so amazed at the ways God communicates with us and the very unique ways that He brings healing and restoration to broken, sin stained lives.

Well, I realized once again this weekend how VERY blessed I am. My Dad and his wife, my childhood friend and her mom, my college friend and her family....all came in town for this event. Not to mention all of our family that live in the area that attended - my Mom, Joe's Mom, Joe's brother and his family. AND we have our Church family and friends. WOW!! I want to encourage everyone who is reading this blog to stop for a moment and thank God for the friends and family that He's placed in your life. If you are like me....I often take them for granted. But....I don't know what I would do without them!!!

Ok, so it was an incredible weekend - my friend Kristi and her family stayed with us on Saturday and my Dad and his wife came over to watch the Titans play and have dinner. We had a blast! Kristi got to see Lily for the first time and I was so happy to see her kids since we don't get to spend much time together. Oh I wish they lived closer!!! Then we got to spend time with the other friends and family on Sunday after the dedication. I can't believe I didn't take more pictures of everyone! Oh well....I want to thank every one of you for being there and for supporting us. For those who couldn't make it, I want to thank you for your prayers. Please keep praying :-) This is a lifetime committment that we've made! So here are some photos from the weekend...

our angel