Ruthie's Baptisim

Ruthie was baptized on Mother's Day and it was quite the day! I was thrilled to have her baptism on Mother's Day and so happy that we would have our family together for not only the baptism but to celebrate our mothers!


Paul's parents had the girls Friday and Saturday while I worked and my parents came on Saturday. The girls, Paul, and the grandparents had a fun Saturday of swimming at the hotel pool where my parents were staying and cooking out that evening!




Sunday morning when I was getting ready for church Emmie came in my bathroom and said her stomach hurt and then laid down on the bathroom floor. The poor girl was very pale and clearly not too far away from throwing up. I managed to get her off the floor and dressed and everyone else dressed (the big girls were wearing matching dresses) and as I was putting on my shoes to walk out the door the explosion happened. It wasn't pretty. Fortunately, after she got everything out of her system she looked and felt much better. Unfortunately the explosion required a last minute wardrobe change for me and her which meant Ellie also needed her dress changed so they would match! It was CRAZY getting out the door! (And somewhere in the middle of that we realized that one of the girls had outgrown her white church shoes so we had to track down everyone's sandals!)




By the time we got to church Paul's mom was feeling really awful and was super pale. She made it through the baptism and then she and Fred left with Paul and Emmie (we didn't want to share her germs with her nursery friends!) and Gin-g and Fred ended up going back to Summerville. They both ended up sick before all was said and done.

Paul's brother, Blake, and Paul's parent

Ruthie did excellent in church before the baptism and during the baptism. She wore the dress my mom smocked that Emmie and Ellie also wore (and I hope one day their children will also wear it...I love having a dress to pass down!) Ruthie was her normal, easy-going self! Ellie was hilarious. When the service started she leaned over to Ruthie and said "shhhh". She did that probably 3 or 4 times. It was all I could do not to laugh aloud! During the baptism Dr. Thomas talked about how the water was just water but it represented the blood of Jesus. Well when he went to baptize Ruthie a fair amount of the water went on Ellie's head and she started crying inconsolably. I know she was very startled by the water. My mom later said that Ellie probably thought she had the blood of Jesus on her head!! Poor girl...she was traumatized!

my parents

Our girls have all been baptized by different pastors but I think it makes each of their baptizes unique and special for them. Emmie was baptized by Duff James who married Paul and I (and he and his wife have 3 girls too...all born within a few weeks of our girls...in fact, Kristi and I were due the same day with the middle girls! Duff and Kristi are planting a church in Asheville now). Ellie was baptized by the wonderful Sinclair Ferguson who, when I was pregnant with Emmie, preached one of my all time favorite sermons. Ruthie was baptized by Derek Thomas. My big girls LOVE Dr. Thomas and get so excited about going to the children's sermon to listen to him and we've had many wonderful conversations about God that stem from what they've heard during the children's sermon (including a long conversation about whether squirrels go to heaven after a children's sermon where he asked the question if dogs go to heaven). We feel so honored to have had these three Godly men be a part of such a wonderful event in our children's lives.
Blake had come from Clemson, after going to prom the night before (he's a high school guidance counselor). He and my parents came over to the house for lunch after church. We had a fun lunch and enjoyed our company. Poor Blake came all the way for the baptism, which meant so much to us, and to see his mom and he only saw his mom for a few minutes and then he ended up with the stomach virus the next day.




We were also glad that Uncle Ben (aka The Giant) got to watch the baptism from Arkansas (and I'm sure he was glad he didn't have to worry about the stomach bug!).

The whole group!

(By the way, Emmie ended up being just fine after the one time she threw up but woke up screaming two nights later saying her ear hurt so we trekked back to the doctor for the third child in 2 weeks to be diagnosed with an ear infection. The poor thing was in so much pain for a few days and I even had to go pick her up early from school on Thursday because she was just miserable. We go get her ear rechecked next week and I'm really hoping it's all better...I'm ready for everyone to be well again!)