Brilliantly white

Steve was baptized and welcomed into faith and the presence of Christ by water and oil. Late Saturday night, I watched as my husband, tears filling his eyes (and most of the congregations) tip his head forward to be wiped clean, brilliantly whitened. It was more meaningful than our wedding day. He agrees. It just felt so incredibly powerful to watch that happen to a grown man. We have had all our children baptized, which is also beautiful. But, how dirty can they really be at three months old? It is such a bigger experience where there is a lifetime of sin, free will, and apparent agnostasism run riot.....and that's all for a guy who was pretty darn awesome BEFORE!

Easter was beautiful. The morning mass feels so different than the vigil mass. Obviously it's much shorter (1 hour vs almost 3), but everyone is rejoicing and singing praise again. All three kids slept through the entire thing, which probably made it even more enjoyable because we got to listen to every reading and fully participate. Oh...and my husband taking the blessed sacrament of the holy Eucharist was SO COOL to watch again. In our church, we are only suppose to receive it if we are in a state of grace, that is, not actively sinning, wanting to continue to sin, or have a mortal sin on our souls without having confessed it. Can you think of any person in a higher state of grace than my husband, the morning after his baptism?! Secretly, I can't wait until he does sin again and he gets to experience one of the most beautiful parts of our church, reconciliation. Oh, how the tears flow.

Shepherd, Ella and Paxton had SO MUCH FUN yesterday. We got up, had homemade cinnamon rolls, went to mass, came home, hunted Easter eggs in the front yard with some friends' kids and family, and ate together. I made the traditional lamb and a ham and mom and Joe, our friends, the Ahrend's, and Steve's parents came over. The kids were high on sugar all day and slept like babies last night. Ahh....what a good life.