Today in church we blessed Maggie. My mom came, which was nice (and afterwards held her and got her to sleep for us, suh-weet! She usually fusses through Sacrament Meeting.) In the circle, besides Jeff, were the bishop, Jeff's dad, and for the first time, Jeff's brother (half-brother, whatever), Kevin (he was ordained an Elder just recently, so this is the first time he's been able to participate in blessing one of the kids.)
She wore the family dress (see my post on blessing Bridget), which I washed using Clorox 2 and got a little lighter, and darned several spots on by hand (the bigger holes that had developed since last use; the smaller ones I decided to leave and not do more damage.) And she didn't spit up on it, which was good. She's the first girl who's been small enough to wear a size Newborn onesie underneath, the other two wore size 0-3 mos. by the time they were blessed. (Maggie wears 0-3 in most things and 3-6 in pants, because of the length, but still fits Newborn onesies, because she is long but SKINNY. Like our other girls. But she is more petite, bone-structure wise, than the other two. Except her feet, of course, which are huge.) The dress hung off her a bit, but it was okay. She is just so narrow. Afterwards, we changed her into a white dress I found at the thrift store, and got for $0.50; so cute! It has lace around the collar, is made of Swiss dot fabric, and has poofy little sleeves. We put a white headband on, too.
The blessing was pretty short, compared to the other two, but that was okay; what the Spirit directs the Spirit directs and when the Spirit says "the end", that's it! She didn't make a sound, unlike her sisters. We got her into her father's arms and calm before time to go up, so there was no transition to make her scream. It seemed to work well. The main points were as follows:
-Name by which she shall be known in the records of the Church is Margaret Nancy;
-That she may be an example to her siblings;
-That she may seek an education;
-That she may be married in the Temple to a loving husband and father.
Like I said, short but very sweet. I was particularly interested in that first point! ;) It is interesting to me that Emma and Maggie were blessed to be married in the Temple and Bridey was not; we will see what happens there, I guess! Of course we want that for all of them, but more than anything we want their happiness.
During Sunday School, Bridey came in to get her diaper changed and cracked everyone up yelling out, "The find the daddy! The find the daddy! The change me! The POOP!" *giggles* It was the fifth Sunday so we had a combined RS/Priesthood meeting third hour. That was really great. As usual. I love when the Bishop teaches. After church we went to my aunt's and had lunch and cake (Emma insisted that we had to have candles and sing "Happy Birthday"-- even though it was no one's birthday), then home for a nap, then to my mom's, where we talked (and played) with my sister Megan (half-sister, whatever) and then she had to leave as Jeff's parents and Kevin showed up for dinner. It was a great evening, after dinner we looked at old photos that Jeff's mom had brought, and they were so cool. We found out some interesting things. Jeff sits, squats, stands, and holds a kid EXACTLY the way his grandfather did (which I never knew, his grandpa died while we were dating.) Emma has her Grandma Leslie's grin. And Maggie looks almost exactly like Jeff's cousin Barbara did when she was an infant. There are definitely some dominant genes in that family! ;)
All in all it was a great day, despite a few minor willful episodes on the part of the older sisters. It followed a very full weekend (on Friday, the Pacific Asia museum and a Dodgers game; on Saturday, the train to downtown, lunch at Phillipe's, Chinatown, shopping for lunch Sunday, and then dinner with my dad and Sheri and Jeff's family at the Star Cafe), and we are looking forward to a more restful one next week, though we had fun (and Emma REALLY bonded with Uncle Kevin!)
2 comments:
How sweet!
Here is another question from an ignorant non-Mormon- why is marriage in a temple important? Is it a particular temple? Is a marriage that takes place somewhere else, like outdoors or in a home, not recognized by the church or somehow less sacred?
Curious minds wanna know.
Good question. :)
A marriage outside of the temple is considered perfectly valid, as long as it is a legal marriage (performed as prescribed by law), etc. But it is considered "for time only." While you can be married for time only in the Temple (there are Temples all over the world; we were married in the Los Angeles Temple), most temple marriages are "sealings", which are "for time and all eternity." Meaning, the marriage lasts not just on this earth but for all eternity. The sealing also applies to children born into the marriage, and adopted children can be sealed to the parents as well.
Besides that, admittance to the Temple is conditional on an interview with the Bishop and one with the Stake President to certify that you are following the commandments. Thus, being married in the Temple means that 1) you married a member of the church (or if you were already married, that you and the spouse are both now active members of the church, being sealed a year or more after your legal marriage), 2) that you are keeping the laws of God, and 3) that you have a desire to continue in the church and for your marriage to continue for eternity (several studies have shown that active Mormons who marry in the Temple do indeed have a lower divorce rate than the national average.) All these are things, of course, that we hope for our children.
You can read more on the subject at mormon.org.
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