London Claire's Baptism

This weekend, London Claire was baptized at our church. We had friends and family travel from all over the country to celebrate with us as we vowed to raise our little girl to know and love the Lord just as He knows and loves her. Moments like this Sunday morning remind me that she was His first, and He gave her to us. He picked her out just for us, and us for her, but we are just borrowing her. She is His forever. We all are, Amen?

My heart was so full as I watched London meet friends and family that are so dear to us. Her godfather from California, her great grandparents from Florida, her great aunt and uncle from Arizona - I know she won't remember meeting them, but from the looks on their faces, they will certainly remember meeting her. We were blessed to have both of my parents here from Virginia, L's godmother and her husband from South Carolina, her "god-grandparents" from Tennessee, plus a multitude of our close friends and family from here in the area. So blessed, y'all, so freakin' blessed.

I fought back tears throughout the ceremony.

That's a lie.

The truth is, I fought back tears for the past few weeks as I rocked / nursed my baby to sleep every night in her precious nursery, because I was staring at the beautiful christening gown my mother & I bought her before she was even born. I fought back tears as I dressed her in the delicate pearl bracelets and monogrammed bloomers and ruffly socks I had picked out just for her special day. I fought back tears as I slipped the delicate smocked gown over her perfect little head and tied the sweet matching bonnet under her double chin. So when the ceremony itself came, there was no more fighting them back.

The tears won. 

As I stood in front of the church we have come to love, looking into the pews to see our nearest and dearest, promising the minister to raise my little one as Christ would have us to ... there was no hope for me. It was so beautiful. I saw several of the women closest to my heart also tearing up, and I know it's because they have so much love for our precious girl and want the best for her just as we do, and want to teach her about the love of God by showing her first. I just can't describe that feeling, but I can say - gratefully and humbly - that Ben and I are unbelievably blessed.

So, if you were able to join us for any part of this weekend - physically, spiritually or emotionally, if you sent us well wishes through cards, gifts, facebook messages or texts, if you were lifting us up in prayer from around the country, I can only say thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Words could never be enough but please know that we are eternally grateful for the support you all have provided and will continue to provide on this precious journey.

Eckerson Church Search: Season 2, Episode 4

It's a two-fer, boys & girls! OK, just girls. But still, two blog posts in one day. Because, I was working until almost 10, so why not give it a few more minutes on the laptop and get it in while I can? Work has been insane, not to mention some personal struggles we've been going through, and a little old thing called MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING to keep me busy. But, the long overdo blog about our most recent church visit is here.

A few weeks ago, Ben & I joined my sweet cousin, also named Ben, and his lovely fiancee Courtney for breakfast at the State Farmer's Market Restaurant - always delicious! - and headed to the middle of nowhere to visit Apex United Methodist Church. All right, I admit that we don't spend much time in Apex, but it felt like the middle of nowhere. 11:00 service? Check! Held in a real live chapel, complete with stained glass? Check! Songs from a hymnal? Check! Anyone in the congregation younger than 65? ... a hesitant "check" but a Check! all the same.

If you're an avid reader of this blog (can you hear the sarcasm?), you are probably aware of our struggles in finding our church home. The aforementioned criteria are all hiccups that have kept us from returning to other churches we've visited. While this was in no way what I imagine as my perfect church, we are continuing to move down the right path. The church was small-ish, despite a very impressive website. We attended the traditional service (though a contemporary one was available at the same time), for Ben's benefit. It was daunting at first to see the majority of attendees are likely 4 decades our seniors, but families with tweens and teenagers filtered in as it got closer to start time - I can only imagine the struggle to get a 16 year old out of bed on a Sunday morning!

They opened the service with a video announcement promoting their service at the park the following Sunday, which featured the minister as a "rapper" (if you want to call it that) that I found endearing and adorable. It was great comedic relief for a conservative Methodist church! Unfortunately, the minister who spoke that particular Sunday was a guest preacher. While we enjoyed his message, and the service as a whole, we feel called to give it another shot and get a feel for the normal teaching from their regular minister. I don't think either of us is sold on it entirely yet, but we're both willing to give it another shot (the next time we're actually in town - notice a trend, here?).

To top it all off, just this wknd, a lovely older gentlemen visited our home (at an appropriate 2:00pm) on Saturday to drop off a gift bag, thank us for visiting, and ask if we had any questions. That contact, two weeks later, was the first we'd had with anyone from the church, which I love. No nagging voice-mails, no guilt-laden emails, just a pleasant house call. Good work, Apex! Oh, and I must add, this recommendation came from my dear friend Katie, who is a Methodist Minister in TN.

Eckerson Church Search: Season 2, Episode 3

A husband who grew up Catholic. A wife who grew up Evangelical / Non-Denominational / Assembly of God / some combination thereof. Is there middle ground? Can we find a church home that will suit both of our needs? Our journey continues throughout the Triangle.

This week: Genesis United Methodist Church
I passed the church last week when I went to see Kelly & Casey finish their marathon. It was so close to our house that I made a mental note to check out service times - 11:20, perfect, right? Wrong. There was nothing overtly wrong with this church, I guess, but it gets very few checks on our list.

Building: D
The location of the church itself is something that is really important to Ben. I think this comes from growing up Catholic, as most (all?) Catholic churches are filled with stained glass windows, candles, statues, etc. I certainly don't disagree with him on this one, though I never identified it as a priority until he brought it up.

From the street (High House, in case you were wondering), it looks like a huge building. Upon entry, we were both pretty disappointed. It's more like the warehouse / gymnasium-esque buildings that I was used to attending. No stained glass. No pews. A big X on that one.

Teaching: C
The biggest priority for both of us is having a good teacher. Someone who can engage us, put things into a contemporary spin, someone who isn't too long-winded but isn't just regurgitating scripture. I need a charismatic speaker, and Ben wants someone who is clearly educated by seminary or otherwise.

The minister was a sweet older man with a southern accent. His sermon was short, his anecdotes were irrelevant and his message was superficial at best. His one redeeming quality was that he sought us out as we were exiting (despite a huge line of church-goers waiting to shake his hand) and thanked us for coming, and asked us to come back.

Church Body: B
Eckerson Church Search, Season 2 Episode 2 was very promising (and still might be our best fit so far), but the biggest problem we had was the average age of the church body (which was approximately 65). While not as big of a priority for Ben, I'm looking for the opportunity to fellowship with people we have something in common with. Maybe they're 20-somethings and dating, or maybe they're 30-somethings with two kids, but they're definitely not 60-somethings with blue hair.

Genesis had a great mix of church-goers at a variety of ages. Even though it was a bit smaller, there were a good amount of young families, and a choir filled mostly with grandma-aged folks. This was probably the most redeeming quality about the church.

Overall Grade: C
The schedule of the church was great. The location (4 minutes from our house) is ideal. The music situation was fine. Our fellow church-goers were friendly but not overbearing. Length of sermon and length of service were good. Length of prayer was awkwardly long, though. And as a whole, we were unimpressed. So, we continue the Eckerson Church Search. We're gonna be out of town for the next few weeks (Mexico next Sunday - YAY!, Kelly's Bridal Shower in VA the weekend after that), so we'll hopefully resume this series April 17.

And of course, if anyone reads this, and you have a suggestion for a church we should try, please send it my way!