I got baptized! I remember watching others get baptized in the past and thinking "Oh, haillll no. There's no way I'm getting up in front of all these people - especially my family - and pronouncing my love for Jesus. Nope. Nope. Nope." But as my walk with Christ has gotten deeper, it's become clearer to me that in order to truly do my deal as a daughter of Christ I need to be spreading his glory. I can't keep this awesomeness to myself, no matter how far outside of my comfort zone that pushes me. (Read: I've still been a big baby about tiptoeing outside that comfort zone, but I think this was big step!)

I was originally supposed to be baptized on July 24, but I woke up to a severe allergic reaction to Penicillin. (Who knew - your body can just decide to become allergic to things overnight.) For real, Google "penicillin rash" and I rivaled the worst pictures you can find. Needless to say, I did not get baptized looking like a leper (how ironic). Satan is real, y'all.

I added October 16 in my calendar - the next baptism. (I also kept hoping I wouldn't die between July 24 and October 16, because that would really suck to JUST miss my chance for the pearly gates. Also, JK. While I know God longs for us to proclaim our love for him through baptism, I also don't believe that's humanity' only way to H-town.)

I was struggling with what I was going to say. Adam had such a beautiful, moving testimony at his baptism - a literal "come to Jesus", but I didn't have an exact moment that I could describe when I knew Jesus was real. A few weeks prior to my baptism our pastor, David, did a sermon on "it's not what you know, it's what you believe". This clicked! I decided to go into a little more detail and ta-da, I was ready.

October 16 arrived and a whole slew of family joined us - Dave, Meagan, Nathan, Mom, Dad, Mitch, Kathy, Maggie, Michael. (We missed Kelsey and Debbie!) I got up next to the three kids (yep, all the rest were little children) and did the business-y, public proclamation part. I was last and spent the whole time praying that God would give me words to bring Him glory. That I wouldn't be nervous, but I would be bold and reach an unreached.

Next thing I knew, it was time to kick off my shoes and head to the stage. As a comfort blanket, I held Aiden during my little spiel. To the best of my memory, this is what I said...

"A couple weeks ago, David said 'It's not what you know, it's what you believe.' That was great, so I'm going to steal it. I may now know every book in the Bible. I may not know a ton of scripture by heart, yet. I may not know many Christian buzz words. But I believe in Jesus with my whole heart. I believe that we are all sinners, and I believe that Jesus responds with more love and grace than we could ever comprehend. I believe he has done amazing things in my life and you can't convince me otherwise. I'm excited to see how else he uses me to bring glory to Him. And I'm excited to be up here getting baptized in front of all of you!"

Next came the waterfall and really, truly amazing prayers from both Adam and our pastor, David. And ta-da! I am officially baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. AMEN!

(Side note: My Jesus bestie, Barbara, also got baptized on October 16, eleven years ago! I didn't even know until after the baptism! Seriously, SO COOL!)

December Happenings

Ah, what a December it's been... Let's start with the fun stuff.

Look at my little Rainbow Brite! She's loved gripping onto toys lately... including Betty, her Christmas doll.

I went back to work on Tuesday, Dec 8 (exactly one year from the day I found out I was pregnant! Life is ironic.). Adam surprised me on Sunday with flowers, a babysitter (thanks, Nonna and Papa) and a night out! We tried a new restaurant on the square, Piastra, followed by our favorite - ice cream! He is the absolute sweetest man in the world, and I can't believe he's mine!

I'm telling ya, this Merlin Magic Suit is life changing. We decided it was time Aiden started sleeping in her crib - I wasn't sleeping great (duh), but I could also tell that she wasn't either. Sunday night was our first official night, and she did great! (She's been sick all week, so I don't know if that has anything to do it.) I'm keeping track of how she does every night (Adam says I'm writing a research paper), and for two nights she's slept 11 hours - waking up only once for a couple hours! Of course, we still make sure she's totally asleep before we put her in the crib. We're not quite ready to let her cry until she falls asleep.

I ordered her a First Christmas ornament from Etsy, and I love how it turned out. May her ornament collection begin!

Merry Christmas, Adam! This tattoo probably deserves a post of its own, which it kinda already does! Check this post out for the meaning behind it...

My gourmet chef (Adam) made us sushi this weekend!

We took family pictures for Dave & Debbie's Anniversary/Christmas on Saturday. Poor Aiden still wasn't feeling great, but she was a trooper. She loves being outside, so it wasn't too torturous for her... we hope.

My loves. (Adam's head is basically the size of her. Hilarious.)

Adam's Baptism

(I'm going to let Adam take the reins on this post, but just wanted to preface with how PROUD I am of my amazing husband. His baptism was one of the most awesome days, ever. He just blew me away and I don't think I've ever been more proud. He has grown to be such an amazing leader of our family and I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for him!)

Hello world! Here to make my blogging debut, it's me Adam! Sorry that my first post is super long!

I'd like to start and say a big Thank You! to all of our family and friends that have given me the support and prayers that have helped me get to this day. It truly was an incredible experience. The Lord has been working in me a lot the past few months and I have been thinking about getting baptized for a while, but never could bring myself to do so. But with the push from my small group and my wife, I finally decided to do it.

I was massively freaking out about it. I was mainly nervous because I didn't know how it was supposed to go, and I didn't know what to say. The church emailed me a brief summary of what happens, but it wasn't very detailed so I didn't really know how this would go down. The email said I had to say something before I get baptized, but didn't specify how much, so I didn't know whether to say a sentence or a story. God put it on my heart to tell my testimony so I typed it all out and looked up and it was 8 pages single spaced, way too long. I finally cut it to the bare minimum and got it to about a 6 minute speech. But I was still freaking out that it was way too long.

We get to church that day and the pastor shows us where to sit and says that three other people were getting baptized, two children and one teenager. I thought, "Great, I'm the only adult. This will be weird." After we all went up front and the pastor asked us questions to declare our faith, I sat down and watched the two adorable children get baptized.

Right before my turn, I looked at Lizzie and said, "This is going to be weird, it's going to be too long." She assured me over and over that it was going to be great. My wife was my biggest supporter through this and was the main reason why I decided to get baptized.

Normally when I speak in front of people, I get the shakes real bad and I use a lot of filler words. But as I walked up there, the power of God came over me, and if I hadn't wrote what I was going to say down, I wouldn't be able to tell you what I said. It was almost like a trance. But here is my testimony:

I'm here because my life changed back in August. At the time I was extremely depressed and convinced that God had left me. I would beg him to show himself to me, but I would get nothing. I was so fed up with it. My wife and I had been coming to Stonebridge for about 2 years, but it was very off and on. She was the one who would get us to go since I always wanted to go "next week." But for some reason last August, I went to church by myself.

I don't know what David was talking about that day, but one simple sentence stood out. "Faith is standing on the chair." He gave the analogy that Faith is not looking at the chair and saying, "Yeah, I bet that can hold me up." Faith is getting up and standing on the chair. 

After church I went to breakfast with my Dad. For some reason I started pouring into him saying that God has left me, and I keep calling for him and he doesn't answer and he has turned his back to me. After my rant, and a very long pause, I'll never forget as he leaned over the table, looked me dead in the eye and said, "Son, God didn't leave you. Have you thought that you turned your back to God?"

Later that night, there I was sitting on my couch thing about what happened that day. I thought, "Ok, I'll try and stand on the chair." I got out my Bible and looked at it and realized I had no idea where to start. So, like everyone, I Googled it, "Where to start reading the Bible." All the results came back Mark, Luke, and John, but it didn't feel right to me even though I didn't really know what those books actually said. So I went to page 2, and there was Ephesians. Guess what Ephesians is about: Faith.

Ephesians 2:1 "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world… But because of his great love for us, GOD, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by Grace you have been saved. And GOD raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms of Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by Grace you have been saved, through Faith, not by works, so that no one can boast." 

I broke down to my knees and started praying. I told God I was going to get on the chair, I was going to put my whole life in his hands. I felt the Lord in that room that night. He was standing over me and he put his hand on my back and the whole room was flooded with light. I saw the Devil in a black hood standing in the corner and I saw him leave as soon as God touched me. It was and incredible experience, I just didn't know what to do next. 

The next week "happened" to be small group sign up, and even two weeks prior I would have never signed up for small groups, I didn't really see the point. But God put it on my heart to join one. It has been incredible. Just to hear these men of God share their experiences and struggles and pray with them. They helped me go from having an incredible experience to being a full fledge God follower who wants to share the word. 

So here I am, and if you knew me 2 years ago, heck even 6 months ago, I'd be the last person you'd expect up here. But i'm here to declare that I am saved by the Blood of Christ, and it's through Faith, not by acts, that I am saved, and I want to share the word of God with the world. And it's all because I got up on the chair. 

Here's the group that got baptized with me!

What an incredible experience having my wife, father, pastor and small group leader pour the water.

This is Scott, my small group leader.

My great family that God has blessed me with.