Cole's baptism

On November 2, 2013, this fabulous boy of mine was baptized. It was a very emotional day for me. I was seriously crying before we even got to the church. I know that part of that was hormones but part of it wasn't. It's an odd feeling to see your child get baptized into a religion that you feel so strongly about. 

We sent out invites in the mail, the old-fashioned way, and had a great turn out. I had a special experience when I was baptized as a kid and I had shared that story with Cole at a special family night we had a few weeks before his special day.

There were only 2 baptisms from our ward happening that day so Cole got to pick half the program. We didn't even suggest names to him--he did all the choosing. He chose Amy to give a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost, Aunt Amanda to lead the music and his cousin Ethan to say the closing prayer [which Ethan said was such an honor...made me chuckle]. About 5 minutes before the meeting began, Caleb had peed through his outfit and was hungry even though I had tried to time it just right. That's just how things work with newborns. I hurried into the bathroom to change him [thankful that I had listened to the prompting to have a nice change of clothes handy] and tried to make a bottle. The water was ice cold because all of the warm water was currently in a massive baptismal font :) He was really starting to fuss so Angie came back to my parents' house and filled the bottle with warm water and rushed back to the church just in time. Phew! Oh, if only I could nurse...[long story].

The meeting portion was perfect in length. About 20-30 from beginning to end and then we moved from the chapel into the Relief Society room to watch the ordinance.

As I sat there watching Danny enter the font with Cole, I couldn't hold back the emotion I felt. The Spirit bore witness to me that Cole was making the right choice and that Heavenly Father was proud of him. Danny looked at me right before starting the prayer which made him emotional too. I was worried Cole would have to be baptized several times because he has had his fair share of struggles with fear of water but he seemed calm. Danny told me afterwards that as they were about to walk down in to the water, Cole said to him that he was just a little bit nervous but "so freaking excited" to get baptized. A little unorthodox, but that's my Coleman.

In the changing room.

Danny also said that when they were changing into their dry clothes, Cole had tears in his eyes and said that he was "happy crying."  I asked Scott W. to be in charge of taking some pictures before and afterwards because I had my hands full with Caleb and our camera charger had gone missing so we had a dead camera. Plus, I didn't want just iPhone pics of such an important day. I'm so thankful that he was eager to help us out. He's such a good Uncle.

Love this candid shot of Cole wanting to hold Caleb.

 Following the baptism, we had family come over to the house for some seriously delicious food. We pulled together quite a feast with everyone's help. Danny and I made chicken salad sandwiches and we had several side dishes and desserts brought as well. Cole ran around and played with cousins while we passed around Caleb and visited with the adults.

Later that night, I wrote Cole a letter that I let him read and put in his journal. I want to try and write my boys hand-written letters on the important days in their lives so that they have them to read over when times get tough or they need to feel their mama's love. All in all, a perfectly, perfect day.