Cooper Elyse: Cooper's Dedication!

Wow...I have a lot of catching up to do! We have been out of town for a week and a half and before that life was pretty busy, so I am behind on blogging. Hopefully I will be able to catch up this week!

Cooper was dedicated on Mother's Day, May 8! That day is so special to us because Kendall was dedicated on Mother's Day, too, and we just love celebrating baby dedication with our church family.

Cooper's dedication was a little different from Kendall's, though. Our children's ministry has started having parents who want to dedicate their children go through a class and listen to some talks online. We had to listen to three talks, each with homework, then attend a one hour class the week before dedication to talk through the homework and the purpose of dedication. It was so great! We wrote a letter to Cooper for her to read one day when she steps over the line of faith, we made committments for how we will keep our marriage a priority, and we listed values and habits that we want to have as a family. It was really neat and we loved the whole process. We are so thankful for our children's ministry and the value they place on the whole family!

So on Mother's Day, we stood in front of our church and committed to raise Cooper to love the Lord and teach her as best we can to follow him. Gigi, Peeps, Granny, and Papas were all there to help us celebrate. Kendall was going to go up on stage with us, but she decided at the last minute that she didn't want to, so she sat in the audience in Gigi's lap. :)

Cooper got several presents on her special day! Gigi and Peeps gave her this cross and bracelet,

and the church gave her this great book and also a CD of pictures they took after the dedication. That was a really cool part, too - a friend of ours and photographer, Tony Gryseels set up a backdrop and lights and took family pictures for all the families that dedicated their children.