An open letter

Dear family and friends,

We are excited to finally have a date set for Abigail’s baptism, October 14th. Since many in our family have differing views of baptism we wanted to take this time to explain what we believe and why we are choosing to have Abbie baptized as an infant.
Grace is a mysterious gift that changes us into the image of God. It is grace that forms our understanding of baptism. We consider baptism to be a sacrament, which means it is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. This means that baptism is something God does in a person. When a person is baptized God is imparting his grace on that person. God’s grace always comes first. He is the Prime Mover in our lives. Baptism is God’s act on the person.
Through baptism Abbie will be initiated into Christ’s body, his holy and universal church; for when one is baptized he or she is baptized into Jesus (Gal 3:26-27). Abbie will be brought up in the church. She will be a part of the church, the body of Christ. This is one of the most important meanings of baptism (1 Cor 12:12-13). Although she is a baby, and cannot intellectually understand grace, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me” (Matt 19:14). Paul said that children do things “in the Lord” (Eph 6:1). Being a part of Christ is not only an intellectual assent; therefore children can enter into a relationship with Christ even before they fully understand that relationship. In fact, in the book of Acts entire families, including children, were baptized together when the head of the household came to faith (Acts 16:15, 33). In the Old Testament babies were circumcised, and so entered into a covenant with God, on the eighth day of life. Baptism has replaced circumcision as the mode of entering into a covenant with God, and we believe children can participate fully in this covenant (Col 2:10-13). Baptism is also linked to the death and resurrection of Jesus (Rom 6:1-4) and signifies forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). Other facets of baptism include dying to sin, being incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation (1 Pet 3:18-22), and new birth.
In response to God’s grace on our own lives we desire to have that grace in Abbie’s life. Through baptism we accept that gift of grace given to her. During the service we will, along with the church body, renounce our sins so that we allow the grace of God to flow freely in the church and in our home. As a church we will reaffirm our faith in order to remind ourselves what Abbie is being brought into. We will promise to nurture Abbie in an environment of Christian love so that she will be equipped to grow in God’s grace, just as any adult being baptized would need to do. In the service we will ask the Holy Spirit to bless the water and Abbie so that the water will wash away her sin and clothe her in righteousness so that she will die and rise with Christ and share in his final victory. She will be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19-20) recognizing that God is One and that Christ did not do any work apart from the Father or the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and support us as we take this important step of faith together as a family. We look forward to seeing those of you who can come and appreciate all the prayers that have been offered on Abbie’s behalf.

Love,Matt & Katherine

NOW what will we get her for Christmas???

Now that Abbie has her Two Front Teeth (on the bottom), Matt and I are at a loss for what to get her for Christmas :-) The first tooth appeared on September 26th, and the second started to poke through this afternoon, after much fussing and general unhappiness. Now Abs and I are trying to negotiate around these little razor blades so that we can still nurse comfortably. The adventures never stop!

Abbie's 4 month update

Abigail had her 4 month doctor's appointment this morning and I am happy to report that she has more than doubled her birth weight! She weighs 17 lbs and 9 ozs, and is 17.5 inches long now, which puts her in the 95th percentile for both weight and length.

(beaming) :-) :-) :-)

I'm proud of Abbie and myself for feeding her so well. Dr. Coburn told us that I can exclusively breastfeed her until she's 9 months old! That's the longest I've heard from a doctor, which makes me really happy. The longer I can fill her up with breastmilk, the better! Of course, when she starts waking up in the middle of the night to eat, we may start her on solid food at least before bed. Matt and I have REALLY been enjoying our 8 hours of completely undisturbed sleep, and I don't think we're going to give that up easily.

We also began her immunizations today, after LOTS of research, taking with each other, taking with other parents, and praying. We got the Hib vaccine and PCV because both those diseases are hard to treat, easily communicable, and can lead to meningitis, and also the Polio vaccine. There are some studies that have linked the DTaP vaccine with SIDS in 2-4 month olds, so we are waiting to start that one until she is 6 months old. Unfortunately, we can't get those three vaccines separate without spending lots of money. Since Hepatitis is so rare in infants and the Roto Virus is virtually harmless (leading only to diarrhea that,at worst, leads to dehydration requiring hospitalization), we decided to forgo both of those. The real issue will come in a few months when we need to make a decision about the MMR vaccine. Measles, mumps, and rubella are all pretty bad illnesses, but they are treatable and very very rarely (if ever) life-threatening. The real problem is that the vaccine itself has been and continues to be tested and developed on aborted human fetal tissue (as is the chickenpox vaccine). So, in an indirect way, getting the MMR is supporting not only abortion, but also government funding for stem cell research. It will really suck if Abbie gets any of these illnesses, but I can't get around my conscience, especially now that I can't claim ignorance. Most people think that children have to get the MMR to attend public school, but this isn't the case. Parents can get religious exemptions for any or all of the vaccines and those exemptions must be honored by the government. It's such a relief to know that we as parents can make those decisions and do what we think is best!

Abbie did great, though, getting the three shots. I breastfed her the whole time and although she cried out momentarily while getting each of the shots, she went right back to eating each time and calmed down right away. After the nurse left the room, we heard her bragging about how well Abbie did to one of the other nurses in the hallway :-) It's times like this morning that I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad we decided to breastfeed Abbie. It's not just food...it's comfort PLUS food!

That's all for now :-) Have a great day!