I Like to Look for Rainbows...

I am so proud of Paige.  She chose to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She was so excited for this to happen.  She was more than ready to take on this new responsibility.  We had a few family home evening lessons on baptism and was trying to help her get prepared for her big day.  She could've taught us the lessons.  She was so prepared and new why we were supposed to get baptized and she understood about the covenants that she was making.  Most of all, she had a great desire to be obedient and follow Jesus's example.  

A couple of weeks before her big day, we took her to the temple to take some pictures of her in her white dress.  It was a beautiful day, but still rather chilly.  You can tell from the pictures that she was pretty cold.  

Her baptism date was set for February 16th.  We would've done it in January, but Garrett's parents were still in Ohio trying to pack up the rest of their house.  We wanted them to be at the baptism, so we waited until February.  Paige's best friend Brooke Nelson, was camping with her family that weekend, but they really wanted to support Paige, so Brooke and her mom, Kate and our other friend, Tonya (whose family was camping with the Nelson's)  came back from camping (drove 3 hours round trip) to come and be with us at the baptism.  We were all touched that they came.  Her good friend Hayden was there and two other kids from her class (Bryden and Seth) came to support her.  

It was a stake baptism and there was only one other girl from a different ward getting baptized that day, so it was just the two of them.  Garrett's dad, Jim, gave the opening prayer, then the other little girl's grandma gave the talk on baptism.  She was baptized first, and then it was Paige's turn.  It was so cute, when I was watching her walk into the water, true to Paige's personality, she giggled the whole way down.  I watched as she walked over to Garrett.  He took her in his hands and reverently explained again what to do.  And as he said the prayer, I felt the spirit come over us and knew in my heart that Heavenly Father was pleased with Paige.  Garrett felt the spirit as he said the prayer and you could hear it as he was fighting back the tears.  He then baptized her and she came up smiling and giggling.  Later in the dressing room, she told me that she felt like she wanted to cry because she felt the spirit too.  It was such a special experience.  

When we got back into the room, after getting changed, the first thing on the agenda was a special musical number by Paige.  Since we got to plan the program, I was trying to decide if we should show a video or have somebody sing a song.  I thought that all of us girls could sing a song, but then Paige said that she wanted to sing the primary song, "When I am Baptized."  

So, she did.  She got up in front of everyone and sang 'I like to look for rainbows, whenever there is rain...'.  She sang it without any music.  She was confident and angelic.  I was so proud of her...what a privilege it is to be her mom!  Then her grandma Georgia gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost.  I was so grateful to her for doing it for us on such short notice.   She was confirmed by Garrett and Jim.  Then she was welcomed into the ward by a member of the primary presidency and a bishopric member (who happen to be husband and wife, and who live down the street from us).  Her primary teacher, Sister Tilton gave the closing prayer.  

This is Paige and her good friend Brooke, who came back from camping to be at the baptism.  I wish I would've gotten a picture of all the kids that came.  

We went back to our house to change, and then everyone went out to dinner, except me, because I hadn't been feeling very good and was fighting some kind of weird flu symptoms.  So I stayed home and slept.  I had meant to make some white cookies for her baptism, but didn't get them made, so they stopped and got ice cream after dinner.  I think she had a pretty good experience and hopefully she'll remember the way she felt on her special day.