Yesterday was a day we'll never forget.
TJ and I stood in front of our gospel community with Bethany in our arms, alongside of four other families with small kiddos, and pledged to raise them up in the ways of the Lord. We pledged to prepare our children for eternity, to raise them with a commitment to the local church, and to raise them demonstrating the Gospel at home. We didn't respond light-hearted or superficially, but with a strong desire to help them know and experience Jesus' love for themselves.
Our church family pledged to help us love them well, standing beside us as we spur them on in the name of grace and truth. And it was so beautiful.
Three years ago, when Braxton was almost the exact same age as Bethany, we stood before these same people and pledged to do the same for him. These two babies that God has entrusted to our care have brought us a tremendous amount of joy since the moment we first learned that they were on their way to us, and TJ and I talk about how hard it is to recall life before they made us a mommy and a daddy. We've cried tears of happiness and tears of frustration since entering into this thing called parenthood, and we pray more now than we ever have before. Those prayers increase daily. Because each day, we are awakened to a new need of them -- a new way that we can cover our children in the Word.
I can remember the first prayer I prayed over Bethany, that Friday when I first spoke with her first mama through a text conversation. I fell to my knees, crying and laughing at the same time, just as I did when I saw the positive pregnancy test with Braxton. And I simply, humbly asked God, "Father, if this is meant to be our baby, help us raise him or her to change the world in the name of Love. And even if this isn't our baby, help this mama raise this precious baby to do the same."
And, today, my prayer over our daughter is the same one I still pray over our son:
May God receive glory in the life is Bethany Victoria Bargeron, and may she learn to love Him in return, in part, by seeing her daddy and mommy love Him with their whole hearts.
Bethany has enriched our lives in ways too beautiful for words to describe. She is sweet and spunky, beautiful and chatty, friendly and snuggly. Everyone who meets her immediately loves her, and her testimony is one that has brought countless people to tears. One day, she will tell her story for herself, and my biggest hope is that she's no ashamed of her story; but rather, that she is gratefully proud to say that she has been grafted into our family by love, that she believes without a doubt that she is fearfully and wonderfully made.
I believe this baby girl is going to do exactly what I asked God to help her do -- to change the world in the name of Love. After all, she changed ours in His name the moment she was born.
We were, also, blessed to have a big chunk of our family there with us to help celebrate our sweet girl, this miracle baby that is adored by everyone who meets her. We've got the BEST family, one who is always there for us no matter what, and we'll never take them for granted. Just as they've helped mold and shape us with their love, they're already doing the same for the next generation -- Braxton and Bethany.
Our lives are crazy and chaotic most days. They are full of cries and screams and prayers of desperation, but they're also full of smooches, tickles, belly laughs, using our imagination to go to far off lands, hugs, and praying together every night.
These are the days we'll never get back.
And this day, the day we publicly professed our desire as parents to teach, raise, and equip our daughter -- our children -- to know and give glory to the One who made them, was a day we'll never forget.
"...that their hearts may e encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
-Colossians 2:2-3
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