Connections

September has been of course a month of "getting back into the swing" of things with school and extracurricular activities - with the kids back into sports, music and with Zachary and Kaleb now having part-time jobs (Zachary at the FLC church and Kaleb being a "yard man" for Amy's old boss who lives nearby.  While we've been getting our "sea legs" back under us, we've had the chance to reconnect with friends over the month and with our church community.  Relationships are so important, and we're loving the chance after Covid to spend time with people!

Here are a few highlights of the month so far:

Grandma gave Addison a "slime factory" outing as a birthday present this year - what could be more fun for this girl who loves slime than to go with some of her besties as well!?

FLEC hosted a special chapel for grandparents day after the Covid hiatus - Addison was delighted to be able to have Grandma and Grandpa there!

Over Labor Day, we had the wonderful chance to have our friends the Biris over for dinner on Sabbath - and Abel taught Addison a "magic" card trick in which she privately chose a card, and then he "magically" guessed it (all through math algorithms).  Addison decided she wanted to try to guess his card - and SHOCKED all of us when she took the 21 cards, did the process and then picked his card!!?  And kept doing it repeatedly!?  Abel was stumped, because she did not know the math algorithm of how it was actually working --- and we all finally figured out that she was basically memorizing the cards as she went through and narrowing it down to be able to pick his card.  Too bad we are against gambling, otherwise we should take her to Vegas and let her win some money! 😂

Trying to repeat and guess his card

And having a grand laugh when she actually got it!

Amy's finance boss Todd invited his CFOs over to his lake house on a Friday evening for dinner and vespers - Kaleb helped participate in the worship by reading a verse.  It was a lovely time, and Addison enjoyed riding on his jet ski very much!

Kaleb's 8th grade class has a very organized mom who is helping to create some fun class memories with some events - their first one was a class bowling trip on Sunday evening late September - there were probably 20-30 kids that came (both girls and boys) - very fun!

The boys that were there

Amy had the chance to take Addison out on date night this month, which was fun to start that again - we headed off to the mall for a little shopping, food, and a stop at the bookstore!

Kaleb Baptism Videos

Ok - we are going to attempt to post the videos of Kaleb's baptism - fingers crossed this works and if you can't see it - email or text us and let us know!

Part 1 of the service

Part 2 of the service

Heaven Rejoices - Washed by the Water

When a new child of God enters the family of God, heaven rejoices - and we joined in that rejoicing when Kaleb made the decision to be baptized this year.  He was baptized in a private ceremony at the Forest Lake Church on Labor day Monday September 5th at 4P.

Kaleb chose to have a private ceremony as he wanted to have a little program and invite people - both families and friends - that had been important to him over his lifetime.  Amy and Kaleb spent a lot of time planning out the details of the baptism, and the day turned out perfectly - with a few moments of "oh no" thrown in!

The only true moment of "oh no" was when Amy, Zachary and Addison went to the church in the morning to set up the reception area (light food and drinks were served after the baptism) and at the end, Addison went in to look at the baptismal tank and came out saying "There is no water in the tank!"  We quickly called Pastor Jennifer who sent her hubby Bruce over to fill it.  Disaster averted, or so we thought until we got there about 45 minutes before the ceremony and there was a man there who came out saying "when the baptism, I just drained the tank because it was dirty water?"  Umm, in 45 minutes!!!  And the tank takes that long to fill!  thankfully they were able to get it filled in time, but the heater in the tank was broken so the water was BRISK - thankfully Kaleb didn't think it was too terrible so it was only poor Pastor Jennifer (aka life-time daytime Mom now turned children's pastor) who suffered in the frigid water.  For the love of a child....

The lobby refreshment table set up all ready to go!

Thank you Pastor Jennifer for being an amazing daytime mom, a spiritual leader for our kids and others, and for loving these kids beyond measure.

The ceremony turned out lovely, and there were about 50 people who attended.  We had a welcome, a family Bible blessing of claimed promises,  short video that Kaleb put together of why he wanted to be baptized and his favorite Bible verses that he wanted to claim as his own, the baptism, a beautiful "Great is Thy Faithfulness" piano piece played by Miss Esther (his voice and Uno Voce leader), and then a final family prayer.

In the baptismal gowns, ready to go

We know that God and His angels were singing during the service, and as parents we couldn't be happier for Kaleb.  Amy tried hard not to cry during the service and made it pretty well through before her voice started to crack 😂

Welcome to God's family Kaleb - we are so proud of you and your decision!

The kids that were there for the service

The attendees mingling afterwards in the lobby with refreshments

The following Sabbath, the church shared the snippet of the baptism and welcomed Kaleb to the Forest Lake Church family!

Miss Linka making the announcement and welcoming him

The church videoed the full program, but it will be too large to post on this particular entry, so we will see if we can post it on a separate blog post - so stay tuned!