Baby Dedication

On September 29, 2007 we had Jorja Dedicated at our church, Gateway. It was much faster than I anticipated it would be but it was still wonderful! Our church brings up several families at one time and then each family is assigned to a Pastor that will pray over your child as you dedicate them to the Lord. Since my brother-in-law Todd is a Pastor at our church he was the one that prayed over Jorja. Our family came up to the front with us as another Pastor on stage called out our name then we actually handed Jorja over to Todd (as a symbol of us handing her over to the Lord) and he prayed over her and we spoke aloud in agreement with the Pastors that we would give Jorja to the Lord from this day forward (although, the day she was born Shane and I prayed over her and dedicated her to the Lord but this was our "formal" ceremony) Shane and I believe FULLY in giving your first fruits to the Lord - and since she is our first fruit... she's all His. :) We were so blessed to have all the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins show up to support us and Jorja on this very special day. Jorja was so perfect throughout the whole ceremony - no tears, in fact, she slept through most of it. And she looked beautiful in her dedication dress!  

Here we are up front while the Pastor on stage calls out Jorja's name - shortly after this is when Todd prayed over her and the actual "dedication" time began. 

Shane and I with Jorja after Church - she was a little camera shy this day... 

Me & Jorja before the ceremony began

The ENTIRE family! 

Okay, so since I wasn't able to get really great pictures of Jorja in her dedication dress the day she actually got dedicated I had this great idea that I would take her to a studio and have pictures of her made in the dress. I took her to the studio 3 times and she was not very cooperative. After awhile of attempting to get her pictures professionally done she had totally outgrown her original dress so I went out and bought another one exactly like it in a bigger size to take a picture... long story short - here she is in our house many months after the dedication in her duplicate dress and with the pink Bible she received on the day of her dedication. Oh, dear - the things we go through for pictures and memories...