Kaelyn's Baptism

Kaelyn has talked about wanting to be baptized for a long time. She finally turned 8 last month and on Saturday was the big day. Her piano teacher (our neighbor) let her borrow the jumpsuit she had made for her daughters, it was really cute. We arrived at the Stake Center early so she and Nate could  change into their white clothes and we could take pictures. Upon arrival, Luke had a blowout diaper and I didn't have a change of clothes for him, so I cleaned him up the best I could. He still smelled bad though.

There were 8 kids from the Stake being baptized and 3 of them were from our own ward; Kaelyn, John and Julia (twins) were all born on the same day and Kaelyn and Julia are best friends.

Kaelyn and Julia excitedly talk before the baptismal service

The 'triplets'; John, Julia and Kaelyn

I had been asked to give a talk about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The week before the baptism, I had been feeling overwhelmed and depressed and it had been difficult to prepare a talk. So during the service, it finally started to hit me that my daughter was being baptized and how proud I was of her and how happy I was that she had made the choice to follow Jesus and I just started crying. It didn't help that three sweet little girls sang a song right before, so here I walk up to the stand, sobbing and I'm crying all the way through my talk. What great timing to have your emotions be out of control, but the Spirit made up for my weakness. There was another beautiful musical number and then Kaelyn was the first to be baptized. Later on we heard that the font had a leak which is why the water level was really low. It's a good thing that 8-year-olds are still pretty small and there was no problem getting them all the way under water. Interestingly enough, I remember there being a leak in the font at my own baptism 25 years ago and they had to leave the water running. Nate baptized Kaelyn and later confirmed her a member of the church and bestowed the Gift of the Holy Ghost upon her. He did a beautiful job. I wish you could all have been there.

Kaelyn and her Daddy