sittin' pretty

This post is waaaay overdue. I transferred these pictures from the camera to the computer the same day as the pictures of Sarah's beauty shop play. Just haven't gotten them posted. Life gets busy.

But...better late than never. Here they are, at long last!


Natalie loves the Exersaucer.




Doesn't she look like she's concentrating hard?




Sarah chose this bunny for Natalie. Natalie "talks" to it sometimes as she snuggles it.




Natalie isn't sitting up quite yet...but she's close, as this picture shows.




Love that smile!




Awww...

Sarah the beautician

Sarah has a play beauty shop that has been seeing quite a lot of action the last couple of days. The neighbor has fixed Sarah's hair, Sarah has fixed Barbie's hair, and Sarah even has had a go at fixing MY hair! The results have been comical...I don't think we'll start any new style trends. ;)

Some of the pictures are a little out of whack because Sarah was actually the photographer. She hasn't quite mastered how to aim the camera just yet!


Sarah's new 'do...




Barbie's new style...




You can't really see it well (told you Sarah wasn't the best at aiming the camera), but here is my new look...




Another shot of my rats' nest, er, hairstyle...

Sarah says...

I've had a couple of blog-worthy conversations that I haven't been able to get posted yet. One is from several weeks ago; the other is more recent. I'll start with the older one first.

One of our neighbors lives alone in a large house on quite a large spread of property. His wife passed away a few years ago, so it's just him and his vehicles and his cows. Sarah has no concept of a grown man not having a wife, and one day when we were talking, she asked where Mrs. L was. I told her that Mrs. L had died. "Mr. L misses his wife," Sarah said mournfully. She paused, then added brightly, "He still has his cows though!"

Last Friday evening, we visited my parents. My dad sometimes enjoys watching those animal documentary shows, and one about elk was playing on the TV. Two male elk were duking it out, antlers clashing, etc. Sarah asked why they were doing that. Dad responded that they both wanted to be king, but only one of them could be, so they were fighting for it.

Finally, one elk triumphed and the other ran off in defeat. "That one's king!" Sarah exclaimed, then asked if the other got to be queen. "Um, no, it doesn't work like that," Dad answered. He never got any further than that though, because on the screen King Elk was immediately exercising the rights of royalty by, um, mounting a female elk. It happened so fast that there was no time to look away, change the channel, distract Sarah, or anything. Sarah's eyes grew wide. Her reaction? "He scared his wife!"

July photos

I'm not sure why, but we don't have very many photos from the month of July. But here are a few of the ones we do have.

From the 4th of July...






Natalie








Sarah played photographer and took a TON of pictures this month...but most of them were of random things like the TV or a chair. ;)

p.s. on baptism

Jesus said that we are to have "childlike" faith, which would indicate that it is more than possible to believe in Jesus and be saved as a young child. Still, parts of Sarah's participation in the baptism ritual reinforced the fact that she IS still a child, with very childlike tendencies! It made for some humorous moments.

I mentioned in the previous post that our pastor does a brief interview prior to baptism, with questions such as "Do you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins?" Sarah was emphatically answering "Yes!" to his questions. When he said, "But Jesus isn't still dead, is He?" she automatically responded "Yes" to that as well! :) She caught herself immediately, but it was still pretty funny!

After Sarah's Q & A, Bobby moved on to talk with the others who would be baptized that evening. He also gave an opportunity for others to share anything God was doing in their lives. There was an awkward pause, as people are often very uncomfortable speaking up for things like this. Not Sarah! She marched up to the microphone. Surprised, Bobby asked her what she wanted to say. But she didn't actually want to say anything. She was just getting impatient with all this talking and wanted to get on with the baptism! At the end of the day, she is still a four-year-old with the attention span that goes along with it!

baptism

Prior to the baptism, Bobby asks questions, such as, "Do you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins?" This is Sarah answering those questions.






Now for the video. I'm so glad that modern technology allows me to share this. It was such a sweet, profound moment.

good news!

Don't worry, Jess and Tara, the July photos will come. :) But I'm going to go out of order a bit to cover the more important blog post first!

On August 9, we had Natalie's dedication service. It had been planned far in advance, and it was going to take place at our annual potluck and baptism service. My parents were planning to attend, and it even worked out that Nelson's parents could be there.

The day before the event, Sarah heard us talking about the baptisms that would take place in addition to the baby dedications. She was immediately interested, saying she would like to be baptized. I told her baptism wasn't something we did for fun or because we wanted to get in the water or anything; it meant something--something important. And we went on to talk about sin and punishment and Jesus' death paying for our sins and forgiveness and new life. We talked about how Jesus would live in her heart and help her to obey Him.

Sarah insisted she understood. And she prayed to God about all of the above. I told her we would need to talk with the pastor on Sunday morning. He would have the final say as to whether she was "ready" to be baptized or not.

Sunday morning Sarah told our pastor that she wanted to be baptized. He asked her why, and she responded, " Because Jesus has been working on my heart!" He talked with her alone for quite awhile, and when they were finished, Bobby said that Sarah was absolutely ready for baptism and would be a participant in the evening's service! :)

If Sarah had wanted, Nelson could have baptized her, but she opted for Bobby to do it. Nelson took video of the event, which I will *try* to upload in the next post.

But in a time that has been all around discouraging, this was the best possible ray of hope! In the grand scheme of life and eternity, this is far more important than jobs or whatever. :) So we are praising God for working on Sarah's heart, even so young! :)

And Natalie has not been forgotten. We have pictures of her dedication as well. :) And we pray that God will work on her heart even from an early age too!


Before the dedication service...Natalie hanging with Grandma...




Natalie being dedicated...(we were outside at a local park, if you are wondering about the casual attire...)




Baptism pics (and hopefully video!) to come!