A name and a blessing

It appears our blessing of Lily last week was a success amongst the little people in our house, because a few days ago Sage announced to me that she would be blessing one of her dolls in church on Sunday! Luckily she forgot to bring the doll to church, and I “forgot” to remind her.

In an attempt to prepare Sage and Eliza for the significance of Lily’s naming and blessing, I sat Eliza down and told her we were going to give Lily a variation of the name of her late grandma, who we still love and remember. Then I asked Eliza what her own middle name was. When she looked at me in confusion I prompted, “Eliza….” and motioned for her to fill in the blank. Recognition dawned in her eyes and she answered, “Lulu, Eliza Lulu!” (her nickname). “What about Sage?” I asked, then prompted, “Sage…” “Erooni! Sagerooni!”

The blessing day was nice. We had family come up to share some eats as well as memories and pictures of Mark’s mom with us before church began.

I took the opportunity to schedule myself and Becca (my oboe-playing-genius sister…who just birthed a darn cute baby this evening!) to play a musical number in church, since she was visiting. In addition to wanting to see if having seven pounds of baby resting on her diaphragm affected her ability to play for 60 seconds without breathing, I also wanted our ward to see me standing next to the source of beautiful music and see how much credit I could get for her talents! My scheme worked. Becca played at least 30ish seconds without breathing, and I racked up 30ish compliments without actually being very good at the flute anymore.

Other good things of note:

--A friend made Lily a cute bow for her big, bald head the night before her blessing.

--Mark’s hair must have responded to my fervent prayers and seemed to have grown a quarter of an inch overnight.

--Lily did not cry during the blessing (although there was a moment where her silky dress began to slide down the arms of the men who were participating in the blessing).

--Lily waited to spit up on her dress until after our photo shoot.

It was a special moment for me to watch Lily being surrounded by faithful elders of Israel who, as family members and priesthood holders, gathered with Mark to give her a name and her first blessing. We don’t practice infant baptism in our church, but we follow the precedent set by the Savior himself in blessing little children. [Click here for more info.] The name and blessing ordinance provides an opportunity to welcome a baby into the church in what will hopefully be a foreshadowing of their participation in other important saving ordinances, such as baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and being sealed for eternity in a holy temple.

Lily’s got a lot to look forward to. And I look forward to getting to know her sweet little personality better. And seeing what color hair she has when it finally decides to come in. And when she'll pass up Eliza in weight, and be able to defend herself against all those loving eye pokes. And if she'll sing as much as her sisters. And if she'll love chocolate as much as her parents. And if she'll serve a mission.

I am honored and humbled to be Lily, Eliza and Sage's mom.