Livia's Dedication Day

**Edited to add: I almost forgot to mention my absolute favorite part of the entire dedication ceremony! Before Pastor Reed handed Livia back to us, he said something that I think every parent should hear...
"There once there was no Livia, but through your union and through God's miracle touch little Livia came to be. And now that she is someone, she will always be somewhere."
Thank you SO much, Mom, for reminding me to write this in - I meant to, but after writing almost a whole book, I guess I forgot. Thanks again for not letting me leave it out of this post, Mom! Love ya!**

Today is a very special day to me. For sooo many reasons! The main is because Livia Rachelle was dedicated today by Pastor Reed - my lifetime pastor. He's been at my church for 27 years! Can you believe that I was one of his very first babies, and that he actually dedicated me as well? I think that made it even more special :o)

So, perhaps not everyone out there knows exactly what a 'dedication' is. I'll do my best to explain it as simply as possible:

Basically, when we as Christian parents decided to dedicate our child, we made a promise to the Lord to do everything in our power to lead Livie to God. We promise to raise her in the eyes and light of God. When our daughter is old enough, our hope is that Livia will make a personal decision to follow God. Until then, some of our responsibilities will include teaching and training our little girl in God's Word, demonstrating examples of godliness, disciplining according to God's ways, and sincerely praying for our child. Pastor Reed says that one of the most important things we can do for Livia is for her to hear her name called in prayer. (I totally believe this!)

In my church (Mackey Church of the Nazarene) my Pastor also asks that the family, friends, and congregation help in raising our little girl as a child of God. In a way, we adhere to the adage that 'It takes a village to raise a child.' We know that every child will have influences and guidance from those other than his or her parents; we want to do our best to expose our daughter to positive, Christian influences that will belp to raise her up right.

So, here we all are up in front of the Church for Livia's dedication.

From left to right, my friend Jamie & her husband, Warren (their little girl is in the car seat in the front pew!); my Mom & Dad are right in front of them; then there's Perry holding Liv, & me; Pastor Reed's in front of us; Perry's parents (Bill & Trilby) are right beside us; and Laura Belle & Michael are on the end. Unfortunately they got cropped out of most of the other pics, but I promise they're there!

Here Pastor Reed is anointing Livia with oil in the name of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.

And we're all praying for her, and for us to be able to raise Livia as God would want.

Livia did SUCH a great job up front. She got just a little fussy there towards the end, but overall she was amazing.

After Church, we went back to Mom & Dad's for lunch. (Minus Bill & Trilby - I hope they didn't feel uninvited... I just hadn't talked to them, and I'm not sure if Perry even knew for sure that he was going out there)

And before little Olivia got a change into comfy clothes, I snapped some shots of her & her Momma.
Jamie's so daggone pretty! And look at that little fluff-n-puff dress on Olivia. Just adorable!

This is that Lil Dolly Southern Belle dress I've talked about on & off. Laura Belle got it for Liv last year, but obviously she outgrew it about 10 months ago! So why not show it off on this little princess?

Isn't she such a doll?

Jamie, Olivia, and Warren - a cute little family pic!

Both us Mamma's with our little girls

Yes, we did call each other to make sure we'd be matching our outfits. (Actually we didn't. But wouldn't that be funny?)

If I would have been thinking, I would have put a brand new fluff-n-puff purple dress on Livia - then we'd ALL be matching! I'll spell it out just in case there are some who haven't figured this out yet: I found a purple Lil Dolly's Southern Belle dress (just like the one Olivia has on) & bought it! I found it Friday in a little boutique, and it was only $25 with a little puffy slip and everything! Can you tell I'm excited by all the exclamation points? We'll have to get those gals dressed matching soon & do a photo shoot!

Speaking of photo shoots, Livia DOES NOT like sitting still for the camera right now. I tried for 10-15 minutes to get some pictures of the little rascal, but this is about all I could come up with...

Sittin' silly in 'her' chair...

And the goofiness continues... Though, very cute.

And that was with my Mom's help! *Whew!* That little girl does not like to sit still...

We had an absolutely wonderful day out there. I was so tickled that Perry came out to eat with us! Good food, good company, and an overall great day :o)

Perry, Warren, Jamie, & Olivia all left sometime well after lunch. Then Laura Belle had to go to work (she was technically working for Michael) Remember I said in a Flashback Friday post that he got on the Evansville Fire Department? Well, he's in the academy now! It starts bright & early in the morning at 7, so Laura was sweet enough to take over a BUNCH of shifts for Michael. That way he could start ASAP.

And look at the sweet little cake Michael's co-workers at the hospital got him before he left!

Yes, that is a Fire Truck Cake!

How they did it, I have no clue. But it sure is cute :o) And quite yummy too!

So I actually got to spend quite a bit of time with just my Mom & Dad today. My Dad and I even went on a small walk in one of the surrounding woods to go mushroom hunting. For anyone who knows anything about mushroom hunting, ya'll know that Morels are the ultimate in edible mushrooms.

Dad & I decided that it might be just a bit too early for morels. Usually, stovepipes (another type of edible mushroom) are almost all dried up when morels are coming on strong. Today the stovepipes were almost all prime for the pickin's... And we found 2 measly, teeny, tiny morels! But that's OK - we just wanted to be out & about in nature, since it was such nice weather.

My Mom and Dad are so wonderful. I don't know what I would do without them, and I love them SO much. They were and still are such awesome parents to me. I just hope that I'll be half as good of a parent to Livia! That brings me to the very last thing I want to write on this post...

The main reason I wanted to dedicate Livia is because we really do want to raise her in a Christian home, in the eyes of God. But this specific date has another special meaning for me as well. Livia has been such an amazing gift to us, and I couldn't possibly think of any better gift for her 1st Birthday than to have her dedicated. You see, this is a gift not only to her, but to God as well. We are glorifying him by doing this for her!

I've always wanted to have Liv dedicated, and very early in her life. My original idea was to have her dedicated on her 1st Birthday. She was born on a Saturday, and if this year weren't a leap year, her 1st Birthday would have been on a Sunday. I still think this is a really great gift for her.

My appologies for this post being so long... I just wanted to include all the wonderful things about today! Expect more posts of the same length in following days...! It's a VERY special time for us here :o) Much love to you all, and may God Bless You!