 |
| Emily and her sisters, Izzy 2 and Chloe 4 |
Emily turned 8 back in March and made the decision to be baptized into our church. We had a Family Home Evening on baptism to prepare her. We invited family and friends and when we showed up to the church it was locked and there had been a miscommunication in the scheduling so the font wasn't filled up and would take a while. We waited and visited and slowly went through the program. My sister and my dad both gave great talks on baptism and the confirmation of the Holy Ghost. They explained to Em that she would have a warm feeling. After she was baptized by her dad I asked her how she felt as she climbed out of the water dripping wet and her answer was, "They said I'd feel warm, and I'm just really cold." When Aaron confirmed her, he had to do it twice and he was teasing her after that she was so special she got the Holy Ghost twice, she just looked at him and replied, "No you just messed up."
Overall it was a pretty special day that she got to share with friends and family. I'm proud of her for making the decision and I hope she will appreciate and utilize having the Holy Ghost in her life.
They suggest making a special date of it, so we prepared her by telling her in advance that she got to go on a special date with just mom and dad and we'd be talking about something really cool. We took her to Kobe Sushi & Steakhouse for dinner where she got to watch them cook on the grill in front of us. I had tried to find some books at the library to help us explain the topic on her level (we needed all the help we could get), but I had been unsuccessful in finding something I really liked. The Eyre's mention using this book:
So after our dinner, we drove to Barnes & Noble and bought it. I previewed it on the way home and tried to keep from giggling. You would have thought I was a 12 year old girl. The pictures are cartoonish and graphic, and I'll just leave it at that. We came home and sat down and started reading it. I couldn't control myself, so Aaron mostly read it. We turned to the first page and Em doubled on the floor laughing uncontrollably. We eventually got ourselves under control and were able to finish the book. It talks about the pregnancy process, which happened to be good timing since I was pregnant. When we finished she looked at both of us with a funny look on her face and said, "I can't believe you guys did that!" Then she looked at me with a quizzical look, "Wait, so that means you've seen my dad naked. . . That is so awkward!"
She may not remember much about our conversation, but we felt that if anything, it simply opened the doors of communication with her on this topic so that she would feel comfortable coming to us in the future if she has any questions. Because kids are exposed to sex at such a young age, we decided that we wanted her to hear about it from us first and to have her see it positively in the beginning.
Comments