I Can't Wait Until I'm Eight!

There's a song the kids learn at church that says,

I like my Birthdays every one,
Each brings a special joy to me,
But I can't wait, until I'm 8,
For then I'll be baptized you see!

We have been very excited for Claire to get baptized!

Claire was REALLY scared to have everybody watching her. In fact, she said she didn't want to be baptized because she didn't want people watching her.

I was surprised by this. She did the Fashion Revue. She wanted the main part in the play they did last winter. She does get nervous, but at the same time she seems to like being front and center. We did our best to assuage her fears. She kept asking us who we invited. For Audra, we invited a lot of people and made a big deal out of it. Because Claire seemed afraid, we didn't invite nearly as many people.

But, my parents were here, we  had family, and one of her best friends, Mia, came which was wonderful.

She was baptized with another boy in the ward. Thankfully, his mom did almost everything. I have really felt out of it. I haven't had the energy to do all the things that I should have done, but she totally picked up the slack which was awesome, and I am so grateful!

But, either way, it was a fabulous day! Claire ended up not being nervous at all. She did great.

And Audra gave a beautiful talk on the Holy Ghost (Camille helped her by holding up a visual).

Afterwards, the family came over for chicken salad sandwiches. It was really nice, and not overly stressful (since I didn't hardly do anything).

I had to bribe Camille with cookies to get her into these pictures. Overall, she was really well behaved, but she did NOT want her picture taken!

I know this seems really weird, but I really love religion. I don't care what religion- Catholic, Jewish, Islam, Mormonism, whatever. I think religion is so incredibly important to ground families together and to teach virtues, and to give kids (and adults) a sense of self, belonging, self-worth, peace, and hope. Obviously I love Mormonism and I am ALL IN on Mormonism, and I'm so grateful to pass my testimony on to my children and for them to grow up in faith. I hope my kids know how much their parents love them and love our Savior!

Anyway, it was just a really special and beautiful day. Claire is a special, special girl. When Ben bestowed upon her the Holy Ghost, he said, "I bless you to bring good to the world." I LOVE that! I think I'm going to have it blown up and hung up in our living room. What is better than bringing good to the world? I thought it was perfect.