Triple Baptism

Emma turned 8 all the way back in June. Normally, in our LDS faith, we would have held a baptism for her that month, within a week or two of turning 8. However, Emma happens to be the oldest in a trio of cousins who all turned 8 over the course of exactly 2 months. Years ago my siblings and I mentioned maybe baptizing them together. It was such a nice thought. As the time drew closer we began to consider it more seriously. At first we all thought how amazing it would be to travel all the way to Seattle to baptize the girls in the ocean. It would take a lot from all three of our families to make that happen, especially Peter's family for getting there and Adam's family for hosting. We were about to go for it when we realized that if we did, Troy's entire family and Sheri's entire family would be left out. Emma is Troy's parents' last grandchild and we thought they would probably be quite sad and hurt to not get to see that baptism. We had to mourn a little bit as we let go of the idea of baptizing the girls in the ocean. However, we knew it just had to be here. That created other complications - during the time of my mom's passing and services Adam and his family had made the dreaded drive here to Salt Lake something like three times and they just weren't sure they could handle it again. It's truly awful. But Rosey, their 8 year old, convinced them how very much she wanted to be baptized with her cousins and so they made the trip, bless them. I'm so grateful to everyone who made the drive from St. George AND from Seattle.

I'll admit that it was a little stressful to be the coordinator for all three families, getting the arrangements all made for the service and a meal together afterwards. The program, any decorations, all that. But after that was all worked out I was so happy that I was able to celebrate this day with my two little brothers whom I love so much.

Some front porch pictures before we headed out:

And some pictures at the church:

The Seattle Romneys were running a bit late so we didn't get many photo opportunities with the three before the baptism but we did manage to snap this one:

I really loved the service - we had the two boys, Smith and Chase, give the opening and closing prayers. We asked Sheri's mom to speak about Baptism and she was so tender in sharing her own experience getting baptized. She gave each girl a little teddy bear too. We asked Troy's sister in law Tonja to speak about the Holy Ghost and that was also very sweet. We had the grandkids sing a primary song together too. Then the girls were each baptized. We moms stood at the side of the font together with our daughters so we could all see all three baptisms. It was very moving for me for the three of our families to be there together.

There were some wonderful moments that I'll always remember. Standing at the side of the font together was the best one of course, but I was also grateful to our Stake Primary President, who brought little glass vials and filled them with water from the font and gave them to each girl to always have a really special keepsake of this day. It was lovely to be with all the family members who could join us, including my sweet cousin Mary Grace, the youngest of Margaret's kids. Margaret was unable to come from Boulder where she lives now, and Kate joined us later at the lunch. My dad was actually gone as well on a trip he had planned out of the country before we knew the dates of the baptism. So I was extra touched the Mary came.

Following the baptism, and after a man-hunt for my nephew Park who escaped from the church and went and found himself an actual park three blocks away and scared us all to death, we gathered at my dad's house for a meal together in the back yard. Whitley made it extra special with an Italian soda bar plus an elegant sliced potato salad, a watermelon and mint salad and I can't remember what I made. No idea. What a nice afternoon together with family, though. I'm so grateful and happy this day happened.