Esther's dedication

On Sunday, we had Esther dedicated in church. We solemnly committed ourselves to "the love and nurture of [Esther], to teach her by word and by deed, by instruction and by example, by correction and encouragement, and to lead her towards knowledge and the ways of Jesus" and to "pray for Esther, and provide for her spiritual growth just as [we] provide for her physical, emotional and intellectual growth."

Then we heard the congregation commit to "pray for, encourage and support this family, as they grow in the grace and truth and image of Jesus, and...welcome Esther into the life of this Church, as [their] own sister in Christ."

Many of our closest friends here were out of town this week, so we will have a separate time of commemorating Esther's dedication with them later, but it was very important to us to make this commitment in the context of the whole church of which we are a part.

Esther was reasonably quiet during the ceremony, but amused the congregation by trying to grab the microphone from Tim and me. Then during the service she entertained several rows of people behind us by winking at them, producing some pretty incredible facial contortions. I suppose I'd rather she be funny in church than throwing a tantrum, but I do feel bad when she's distracting people!

For the special occasion, Esther wore a beautiful lavender dress given to us by our friends in Kunming. We did a photo shoot before and after church. Anyone who's not a parent would be amazed at the number of unattractive pictures we got as a result, but we did end up with some cute ones as well. And here are some of them for you to enjoy!