a lovely occasion

Lydia, aka Kari, was Confirmed this weekend.  In some circles it's called Affirmation of Baptism--where a child who received infant baptism is now old enough to say, "Yeah, I'm in."

So this was the day.

There were numerous ceremonial gestures at church, which were sweet and important, and our family was all there, and it was lovely.

Then we all came back to eat and celebrate.

Those two people--Julie in the blue shirt, and Oly with his back facing the camera are not family members.    

The associate pastor from a few years ago resurrected an old ministry tradition at the church called Prayer Partners.  An adult and a child team up to be prayer partners.    There are no rules.  Prayer partners and the child are required to do nothing in particular.

Oly and Julie are Prayer Partners for Kari and Tim.   Maria's prayer partner is the woman she was nanny for all summer.  Her husband is James' prayer partner.   I asked him if he ever bothered to pray for Andy? 

He looked at me for a couple seconds and said, "Yes, I do.  Why would you think I don't?"

No, I didn't think that.  Just wondering.

(James is so chill he gives that impression, but it's usually not true.)

Anyway, prayer partners is a surprisingly powerful little ministry.  Our young associate pastor who resurrected the program called people who'd been involved with it in the past and asked them if they wanted to participate.

"Oh, I already have a prayer partner. She's in Florida now, works for Wells Fargo, has three children."

???  She was so astonished at the continuing of the connection.

Me too.

 Anyway, they took the day to spend with us, at church and back at home.

 Here she is:

 Jay's parents were there:

 My sister and her husband stood in as godparents.

(Thank you.  This means the world to us.)

 All in all, a perfect day.   love always, Val aka Mom