Jill's Decision to Get Baptized

The beautiful girl pictured above is our daughter Jill. A couple of weeks ago she was reading the bulletin before church started and noticed an information table about Baptism. She looked at me and said "Mom, I want to get baptized. Can I sign up after church?"

As soon as church was over she went to the table and signed her name up to attend the information class.

What so impressed about this decision of hers was that "it was her decision". She owned it from the moment she read about it - it resonated in her heart and she responded with obedient action!

When asked why she wanted to get baptized she said "Because I think that this is something that God wants me to do".

If we all could be so obedient to respond quickly to those things that God speaks to our heart.

Last Sunday as her dad was baptizing her, God reminded me of our brief meeting with Jill's birth mom. She chose not to see her in the hospital after she was born and she chose not to see her the day that we picked her up in another state. She felt like it would be to hard to say goodbye.

The day that we met, was bittersweet, while Jeff and I were excited about God's expansion of our family, Jill's mom was saying goodbye to a daughter she had never held or seen.

As this precious woman sat in front of me she looked me in the eyes and said, "I don't want you to think for a moment that I don't love my daughter. I love her very much and I want her to have something I can't give her and something I didn't have - a dad." Those words have brought comfort to Jill over the years.

It was in that moment as Jeff baptized Jill that those words were more powerful in my heart and mind than ever. A dad provides safety, security, unconditional love and a spiritual covering.

The decision that she made to place Jill with an adoptive family, broke the spiritual stronghold in her life of the fatherless - that is powerful!

While our kids birth families are not physically present in our lives - they are always present in our hearts and minds. :)

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Matthew 13:44