Sadie's Dedication

What a weekend! I feel like my baby girl is growing up too fast! First, her dedication at church on Sunday...then, I will take her later this week for her 9 month pictures....then, on Monday, I take her for her 9 month check-up. I just want time to stand still. This has been the most fun time of Sadie's life thus far. I realize she's only 9 months old, but I have more fun with her now than I ever have before. She's my little buddy.

Anyways, her dedication on Sunday was so special. It was a long time coming. It was something that I have looked forward to my whole life. To have my own precious little baby to dedicate to the Lord. Wow. What a feeling! I felt "weepy" (I hate that word, but I don't know how else to put it) all morning. I never did cry, but I felt like just bursting into tears everytime I thought about the event that was about to take place. So many of our friends and family came to support us. We took up about 4 rows at church! What a blessing! Although, we joked that everyone in church probably thought we were the "circus family", because so much was going on, and we were sitting in the very front of the church! Coffee was spilt, which caused some of the family to move seats, which made others have to scoot down and make room; the loud music scared little baby Coleton, so Travis had to take him out immediately; Coleton then proceeded to pee on Travis, so Travis had to come back into the service, explain to Anita what happened, and then they all left. I had to take Sadie out, b/c she was being too loud, and I almost tripped while trying to inconspicuously walk out of the room...and so on. It's all pretty humorous if you think about it. Then, most everyone went to Deb's (Grammy's) to have lunch. There were about 25 people there! She had gone out of her way to make everything extra special, as usual. She had a fire going, tons of food, pictures of Sadie everywhere, etc. It was wonderful! I have the greatest Mother-in-law in the world. A few weeks ago, I was stressed about the dedication, because Dennis and I knew we wanted to get the family together afterwards for lunch, but we just knew we couldn't do it over here, b/c we're trying to sell our house, and we have baby stuff everywhere, which cuts down on room, etc. It's almost like Deb sensed my stress, because when she came to pick me up for a wedding shower a few weeks ago, she just marched in here and said "I've got a plan. We're going to have lunch at my house, and we're going to do soups and sandwiches, and that's that!". What a relief! For a woman who raised 2 boys, she surely knows how to pick up on a girl's intuition.
We also had the opportunity to take a few "4 generation" pictures, which was very special. It's not very often that you get all 4 generations together on both sides of the family, so that was really neat.
Anyways, lunch was wonderful! Everyone had a great time, and laughed and seemed to enjoy just being together and celebrating little Sadie. I felt like such a proud mommy! It's the first time since Sadie was born that it's been "all about her", and I was so proud. People even brought gifts for her, which was completely unexpected! We appreciated it all so much. Dennis said that he even got a little choked up while saying the prayer to bless the food, which I didn't notice, but it blessed my heart to hear that. What a sweet daddy. I think we just both felt so blessed to have been surrounded with people that support us and Sadie so much. You could just look around the kitchen and see the love that people have for her.

So, thanks to everyone who made this day so special for Sadie, and for Dennis and I. It means the world to us to have so many people that love her so much!!