Life and Hope

Today was a very special day for us as a family, because it was the day Zoe was baptised. And as you can see from the pictures, we literally were the ones who baptised her.
I'd pretty much considered infant baptism little more than a theological debate until we had Tia baptised and realised quite how powerful a statement it was. Far from being mere tradition, we knew and experienced something spiritual taking place in our family that day. And the same was true today. Today was a day of thanksgiving and recognition of what God had done for us.
When I was pregnant with Zoe, on two occasions it looked like I was losing her - easily some of the most horrendous experiences I've had, and I guess the biggest challenge we've faced since being married.

I remember going to church one night when all this was going on.It was the Good Friday Service. I'd had test after test, ultrasounds that showed no baby, and all we could do was wait and see. As is customary for the Good Friday Service at Joy, a large cross is placed at the front of the church, and the congregation are invited to write down things that they need to give over to God on pieces of paper, and then nail them to the cross. I wrestled throughout the service about giving this baby to God; I didn't want to give it up, but I was already going out of my mind, and my heart was breaking.I knew He was the only one I could turn to. So when it came to my turn I wrote "My Baby" and knelt down at the foot of the cross and nailed the piece of paper there. I knelt at the cross for awhile crying, and in that moment feeling totally alone and in the dark. Alone except for God that is. It was very hard to walk away, but eventually did and got a friend to pray for me.
And the rest as they say - is testimony...
There were a few ups and downs yet to come, but on December 9th 2006 at 1.41pm our precious gift was born.

She has many names (no surprises there - and we'll save the rest for another time) - but here are the first two:
Her name is ZOE, meaning life, because God gave her life, and protected and preserved her life. Her name is HOPE, because God gave us hope when we felt hopeless and helpless.
So you see it was entirely natural to us to have her baptised today, surrounded by our wonderful friends - family even, who stood with us, wiped our tears, prayed with us, fought for us. Today they celebrated with us. For when we walked through the valley of the shadow of death, our Heavenly Father heard our prayers.