Londyn Grace's Dedication {Part Two}

We planned to have the dedication service on Sunday evening, July 28th at 6:00. With both sides of our family being in ministry, they needed to be at their home churches for the morning services so it worked best to have it in the evening. They grabbed a quick bite to eat and then made the 3-4 hour trip from Maryland and Pennsylvania up to Jersey. It ended up raining pretty heavily and slowing them down a bit. My parents, sister, brother in law and grandmother made it at 5:00 and Daniel's parents, grandparents, and brother got her around 5:30.

I spent the afternoon cleaning up the house in preparation for their visit while Daniel attended an ordination service for a college friend. I really wanted to make sure LG got a long nap so that she would be rested and happy for the evening. I rocked her and she finally went to sleep around 3:00. To my surprise she slept for nearly two hours! Such an answer to prayer! She woke up just before my family arrived. I quickly nursed her and dressed her in her white smocked dress. She was so excited to see everyone! The look on her face when they came in the door was priceless.

We headed over to the church to put the finishing touches on the dessert reception. I had the same family friend make the dedication cake that made Daniel's birthday cake so my parents brought it with them from Maryland. We set out the cake and cupcakes and also brownies and fruit tarts my Mama, Mom Mom and Daniel's mom made.

I had set everything else up on Saturday evening. I decided to go with lace and burlap decor to coordinate with Londyn Grace's outfit. I was really happy with how it turned out. Simple yet sweet.

I made a lace and burlap garland to hang above the dessert table and used a lace tablecloth with a burlap runner. I had a few of the portraits printed (Thank you Costco one hour photo! It was my first time using their photo service and I was impressed! I typically use Shutterfly, but didn't have a week to wait on them, this time!) and framed them to set on the table, too.

I wrote Zephaniah 3:17, the verse I chose for her, on a chalkboard and used it on a table with the favors. Lauren, Ruth and Jason helped me make 4 dozen almond sugar cookies that I bagged and tied with lace and jute. I found the cutest cross cookie cutter at Party City so we did some crosses and some round cookies. I iced them with a simple brown sugar icing.

For the guest tables, I used my bubble milk glass vases filled with babies breath and tied a jute bow around them. Again simple yet so pretty! I set them in the middle of the table on white doily and a square of burlap.

After making sure the reception area was ready, I rushed downstairs to practice a song with my Mama, sister and brother in law that I wanted to sing for the service. At this point it was 5:45 and the service started at 6!

Thank the Lord for natural family harmony! We were able to run through it a few times and be semi-comfortable with it!

Daniel led the congregation in our opening hymns and then introduced our family to our church for those that had never met them.

I followed by singing the song we had quickly practiced. A friend of ours wrote the song, I Will Stay Faithful, and graciously allowed me to sing it. It had been on my mind in regards to the dedication and the letter I posted previously.

My family then sang, A Goodly Heritage. The fact that my sister and brother in law were able to be here and sing was such a HUGE blessing as Johnny spent the entire month of July in Johns Hopkins due to his Crohn's disease.

Our pastor challenged us from Psalms chapter 127 and reminded us that salvation is of the Lord alone. It is a duty to raise her in His ways, but ultimately her decision to trust in Him for herself.

He then called us up into the pulpit along with our family and allowed them to give us any advice they had regarding parenting. He concluded with calling on Daniel's Grandpa to pray.

She was so good throughout the service. She "talked" some, but a few puffs helped occupy her when she got a little noisy!

It was such a special time!

My family sang, Family Foundation, in closing.

After snapping a few family photos, we headed to the gym for dessert! 

We served the cake and desserts I already mentioned along with watermelon and lemonade.

Everything is better with a monogram, right?! Even cake!

We so enjoyed the sweet fellowship with our family and church! 

It meant so much that our family was able to share this with us. It is hard to live so far away, but knowing that LG will be blessed and impacted by their examples in spite of the miles that separate us makes my heart so very happy!

We ended the evening with pizza at our house since our family had been traveling and skipped dinner in order to make it on time! (Yes! We ate dinner after eating dessert! :)

I'm so thankful for the memories we made and for the God that is ever faithful to us making it possible for us to be what we need to be for this precious (and super silly!) little girl!

{If you haven't seen Londyn Grace's dedication portraits yet, see them here!}