DEDICATION

When Debbie, Kevin and I were babies, we were all dedicated at church. Our parents were promising to raise their children in the church and as Christians until we were old enough to commit ourselves to baptism.

Dedication is what our Missouri church practices. Every year they hold a baby dedication. There has never been any dedication for parents who adopt older children. Well, we have a new children's minister and he and his wife are considering adoption, so we were allowed to participate in the ceremony this year. In fact, there were 3 adoption dedications this year! It was a special day for us. Since we have no family close by we asked our small group to be our "family." We all sat together. One couple was present for the dedication of their grandson. Another for their new born baby. And another agreed to come up on stage with us for the dedication. We're so blessed to have such close church friends.

Yulia has been talking about baptism a lot since Kitty died. She wants to make sure she's baptized so she can be with Kitty in Heaven one day. It's very sweet but we want to make sure she knows exactly what she's committing to. Our kids minister will be starting Baptism Class 101 after the first of the year.

On a less serious note, the day was quite the social event for Yulia. She got to wear her fancy Christmas dress, go up on stage and wave to the crowd when her name was announced and everyone was calling her a princess(because of her dress.) After the dedication she told me, "Mom, everyone knows me and everyone loves me." Gotta love the self-esteem.