Baptized by Water

On Sunday Sept 12 we had both Adeline & Ettalyn baptized. For those of you who do not attend church, this might not mean much. For those of you who do, you know baptism is a sacred sacrament and an important part of a persons faith journey. 
(a semi-detailed explanation of our choice of infant baptism for the girls 
is at the bottom of the post)

I tear up during basically every infant baptism at our church. I thought I would be a total mess during 

Addie & Etta's baptism & the prayer after. But I was not. Odd sometimes how you don't have the emotional experience you expected during the really big moments in your own life, but you do during others . Another example: I do not think I cried or got misty during my own wedding but have during my sisters and close friends weddings. 

Both girls were quite during the baptism despite all their fidgets and playfulness when we were sitting in the pew beforehand.
(thanks for taking the pictures Myron. thanks for video taping it May)

 It was a tough decision for us on baptism vs dedication (thus the fact that we had not done either for Addie yet). We have been having on & off conversations about it since Addie was born. I was raised in a Christian Reformed Church that did infant baptism& that is what I really wanted for Addie. Matt was raised Baptist and wanted infant dedication & believers baptism. The Presbyterian church we are members of will do either but the vast majority do infant baptism and that is the church tradition. We went to a baptism class at our church when Addie was like 3 months old, then the two of us met with our pastor to discuss it further. We were no closer to a decision so just tabled the issue. Then it got to the point of me being pregnant with Etta so I figured whatever we decided we could just do for both girls at the same time. In July our senior pastor (Pastor Dan) announced that he was leaving Bethany Pres & would be pastoring a church in CA. (God had been telling him that his time at Bethany was coming to a close, but left on his own Dan would have stayed here much longer). We all love Pastor Dan so were (and still are) really sad at the news. I also felt a really strong conviction that I wanted the girls baptized by him before he left. Matt & I talked it over a bunch more & Matt agreed to have them baptized.