Blessed

We stutter and we stammer 'til You say us

A symphony of chaos 'til You play us

Phrases on the page of the unknown

'Til You read us into poetry and prose

We are kept and we are captive 'til You free us

Vaguely unimagined 'til You dream us

Aimlessly unguided 'til You lead us home

By Your voice, we speak


By Your strength, no longer weak


We are no longer weak

By Your wounds we are healed

Tell me what kind of love is this?

Passed over and passed by until You claim us


Orphaned and abandoned 'til You name us

Hidden and disclosed 'til You expose our hearts

By your death, we live



It is by Your gift that we might give



That we might give

By Your wounds we are healed


Tell me what kind of love is this?

What kind of love would take your shame


And spill His blood for you


And save us by His wounds?



By Your wounds, we are healed

Yesterday our children were baptized. We had been waiting for that day for a long time. Ever since Spencer was born Trent and I both knew that we wanted to have him and any other children we had baptized. The question was where.

Trent was baptized and raised in the Catholic faith. The Catholic church was a big presence in his life. He was an alter boy, spent summers working at the church and even thought seriously about becoming a priest. As he grew and learned about some of the "politics" of the church he began to question his faith and what it really meant to be Catholic. He was wavering when I showed up on his path - I didn't push him over the edge. Ha!

I was baptized into the Lutheran faith but the ceremony seemed mostly for "show" since I didn't really (and still don't really) know what the Lutheran faith stands for or believes in. I didn't grow up in a church environment. I never believed and still don't believe you have to go to church to pray or to have a belief in God. I have always had faith and I have always prayed. I question a lot about religion and there is still much I don't understand about God's plan and how sometimes it seems so hard to see the reasoning behind why things happen the way they do.

We talked all the time about trying to find a church but because we had three young kids at home, the actual act of getting up on Sunday mornings and lugging our kids to different churches to see how they "feel" never really happened. One day in January we received a postcard in the mail from a new forming church in the community. We were instantly intrigued since the postcard had a picture of Da Vinci's Vitruvian man on the cover - we figured this church must be fairly progressive and pretty cool. We went on to receive another mailing from them and also saw a giant full page invitation to their first service in the paper. I am not joking at all when I say that we felt like we were supposed to be there - like this was our knock over the head calling to this church. The day of the first service was a blizzard. I think every church in town was scrolling across the bottom of the TV that they were cancelling their morning services - Trent and Spencer headed out in the blizzard to check out the church anyway and we have been back as regulars whenever we are home on Sundays. Renovate is the kind of church where the sermons make you leave feeling good and feeling like you can make a difference in your life and the lives of others. Not any churches I have ever attended have had that kind of effect on me. The boys enjoy the "kid church" where they learn important lessons about God, Jesus and also basic principles on how to be a good person. I hope that they are believers throughout their lives but if they choose not to, I still think that to be an educated person you have to know about religion - yours and that of others.

I feel so humbled every day of my life for the truly remarkable gifts that God has given me. My children, my husband, my family, my friends, my health and so much more. I love the place in my life where I am right now. I am blessed.

Blog note: The words written under the baptism photos are the lyrics to the song Healed by Nichole Nordeman. She pretty much has written the soundtrack to my life - I just can't get give her enough credit - she is an amazing writer and singer. Listening to that song as she sings it literally gives me chills. The awesome photographer that took the photos was my friend Lesley. She got out of work for the afternoon to be at the baptism to be the official paparazzi. I really appreciate the effort you made to be there and the pictures are all great - I would love to put them all on here but Blogger would kick me off for lack of space!

Hailey wore a dress that my Great Grandma made. It only made sense since fishing the waters of Lake Michigan was how my Great Grandfather made his living. Of course she would wear that dress to be baptized in the same water. I love that my Mom saved all of these heirlooms for Hailey to wear and that I can some day to pass on to my grandkids.