David was baptized this weekend.

I grew up in a church that didn’t baptize little ones, so if you’re like me and are unfamiliar with the practice of baptizing infants, I found this explanation. In addition to claiming God’s covenant on behalf of David, it was also an opportunity for Tom and me to stand up in front of a body of believers and acknowledge our, and David’s need for Christ. (I’m going to post the Baptism vows in a separate post, I don’t want them to get lost in the recap of the day.)

David thinks church is a gathering of all his fans. When we arrive, he waves and smiles at all the people who have come, obviously, to see him.

This Sunday it was sort of true. Lots of family and friends came to celebrate with us.

Since David loves attention so much, I was sure that when he was on the actual stage he would grab the microphone and start belting out “We are the Champions.”

That is not what happened.

Instead, David started fussing and I forgot to stand up straight. (When I told my mom that, she replied: Well. You never stand up straight.)

So we tried switching the baby.

David was baptized along with little Madelaine Gretz.

While David squealed, our pastor, Matt, explained baptism and I stuck my thumb in David’s mouth. I was so preoccupied by David that I didn’t notice all the fun the Gretz family was having.

There’s a lot of activity on this stage. Isn’t it awesome? If church isn’t the place for life and activity and big brothers loving their baby sisters.

We were thankful to have Matt Purdy baptize David. He’s our pastor and friend, and we’ve become close with his family. The Purdys have been a big part of our life in Richmond, so it was cool that he could baptize David into the covenant community.

I was amazed at Matt’s ability to remain focused despite all the squirming to his right. I’m sure his three kids helped him develop that skill.

Unbelievably, I think this is one of our only family portraits. It captures us pretty well. David chewing on mama’s finger, mama slouching, daddy standing firm and resolute.

After the church service we had some family and close friends over for lunch. We wanted to extend the party with a gathering to celebrate what God is doing in our family.

The children almost outnumbered the adults, so it was a party. Brigham might have partied the hardest. He kept the kids entertained by darting from room to room but never really hiding.

This is David and his friend Tyler.

Tyler is almost exactly a month older than David, but he’s already bored of all the baby stuff. He crawled and pulled up before 7 months.

His mommy and I hope they’ll be buds one day…if David and his cheeks can keep up with Tyler.

I spent weeks looking for a nice outfit for David to wear this Sunday. I just wanted something special. Something he wouldn’t normally wear. And I made sure all of our outfits coordinated without looking like I tried to coordinate them. All that and David fussed and I forgot to stand up straight.

Even though I would have liked a picture-perfect moment; even though I would have preferred David to coo sweetly and a beam of light to shine down on us, moments like this, when we prepare and plan and still can’t seem to stand up straight, remind me that we can’t do it on our own. We can’t get it together, not even the little things. It’s a reminder that we need Jesus. That’s why we baptized our son. Because Tom and I know that we need Jesus. And we know that, though David is adorable, he needs Jesus, too, and we pray that he will one day come to know his Savior, and Jesus’ name will always be sweet to him.

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