(no subject)

[rivka]

My parents are visiting this weekend. They came down for two reasons: Colin had his child dedication service at our church this morning, and on Friday my father had an appointment at the National Federation of the Blind to learn about screenreading software from Michael's old colleagues.

It's been a joy of a visit, without the emotional stress that's hung over my relationships with my family for a while. They're just hanging out, enjoying the kids, helping, being good company. The kids adore them. My father has taken Alex to the park two days running now - it's a great partnership; Alex has vision and he has good judgment, so they help each other across the streets.

Colin's child dedication was just beautiful. When Alex was dedicated, our ministers gave us a big booklet of potential liturgy elements and let us choose what to have. This was our new minister's first dedication, so we didn't know what to expect. The only input we had into the ceremony content was asking for Alex to be included, and asking that he not use his favorite child dedication hymn because I hate it. He and acceberskoorb put together a lovely service. I'll share the text of the ceremony, and the pictures our friend Adrian took, if/when I can get them.

He was a preturnaturally good baby for the service, too. Saturday he was cranky all day and cried a lot, and I worried that his dedication would be a nightmare. But he went perfectly happily into the minister's arms to be blessed and paraded up and down the church aisles, and afterward he crawled happily around on the floor of the sanctuary, and after that he entertained himself happily for an hour and a half while we entertained a few close friends for his dedication lunch. What a good boy.

Comments

[ailbhe]

Oh, how lovely! That's so nice. I'm really happy for you.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Joy!

[wcg.livejournal.com]

It was a lovely ceremony and a very nice lunch afterward. I was very happy to be a part of it all.

[acceberskoorb.livejournal.com]

Colin was simply amazing, in fact. He was the very picture of a joyful bouncing baby boy!

I can't take any credit for the service, in fact, I just had the honor of speaking. What a lovely day!

[boxofdelights]

Excellent! I'm glad you're having some good family time.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

You mean that David included a part for you without the impetus of you helping write the ceremony? Man, I like him even better now.

I was especially taken with the part for Alex, which was very meaningful to her. A few times later in the day she wanted to talk over the promises that she made to Colin.

[telerib.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry I missed it! (Still. So. Pregnant. And they want me to not pass Go, head straight to hospital when it starts, since I was fast last time... so I was a little nervous about going to church.)

[papersky.livejournal.com]

That sounds wonderful.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

No, of course you weren't there! Driving is so uncomfortable when you get to the end of your pregnancy... not to mention the whole "30 miles from my hospital" thing. But at least now you know for future reference that David does good child dedications. ;-)

Hope Ben obliges you by showing up soon!