Baptism

Today was a big day for us! Sweet Caroline was baptized. At first, when I called the church to schedule Caroline for her baptism, I just did it as a ritual that our families do. We have a baptism gown in my family that is over 100 years old, we just baptize babies. Yes, I knew it was a big deal but I didn't have time to worry about it being a big deal. I even asked Web this morning if he was nervous, because we had to get in front of a congregation with Caroline by ourselves. Web's response? "Well we stood in front of over 200 people at our wedding for an hour, so this isn't a big deal!" But I think we can both admit that once we got to the church, we realized what a big deal it really was. Baptism is defined via the Wiki as by which a person is admitted to membership of the Christian Church. HUGE. As Web and I were giving Caroline a bath tonight, we both looked at each other and admitted that we just felt different. Almost that she is even more official. Not only is she protected by us for the rest of our lives, but GOD is now watching her as well in a more official manner. Not that he wasn't always watching over her, but now it just feels different. Like a little bit of weight is off our shoulders and we can rest a little easier. Now do not get me wrong. I will continue to worry about her, but as I said her prayers with her tonight I felt a calming relief. After I said our prayers, and her middle of the night bottle was empty, I just held her and continued to rock her. (I will never get her to sleep on her own!!) I said a little extra prayer for my dad tonight as well. Tuesday dad has open heart surgery. And as we are all very excited that he is about to get a new start on life healthwise, I can't help but be a little scared. It's not everyday that your dad of almost 35 years goes under the knife, gets his chest cracked open, turns his heart off for an hour, re-route some veins, and voila! Needless to say I asked GOD to please watch over him so he can continue to watch Caroline grow. I wanted nothing more today than my dad to just hold Caroline. I think he is the only grandparent that I took multiple pictures of today holding her. I wanted to have those memories in my head forever. As I was saying my extra prayer to GOD tonight, I started thinking about baptisms and how life goes full circle. Here is a sweet 4 month old getting baptized and admitted to GODs church, and a 62 year old man that is doing everything he possibly can to prevent joining GOD up above. Kind of ironic, 2 different prayers, but 2 special people.
I know that dad isn't going anywhere. The odds are definitely in his favor, but if you all could please say a quick little prayer or shout out to GOD about him I would truly appreciate it. I know he would as well!

ACCOMPLISHMENTS!

We have hit the 10 lb mark! Whoah hoah! I took Caroline to her 4 month old check up yesterday and she is officially 10 lbs 5.5 oz and 22 inches long. She is so cute and petite it cracks me up! Web and I are far from petite, so it makes me giggle thinking our little Caroline will be petite, but we'll keep her!
Other accomplishments:
I think we have finally found a bath tub that works for her. We are on tub #4 and I think it's going to work. It is so hard to find everyday stuff for Caroline. We needed a tub that was flat, so she could stretch out her legs, but elevated, so she wouldn't drown. One would think this is easy to find, but not so much.
The Toyota is fixed! FINALLY! Driving around with an accelerator that could possibly go out while driving was a little scary. Not going to lie. But it is fixed and I have to admit Toyota gave us awesome customer service, that I might consider another Toyota in the future. Web probably won't.
We have official dates for NIH! It is truly amazing how they work. The other day I was talking on the phone with a friend and my home phone rang. It was not a number I recognized, so I let the machine pick it up. I didn't want to be bothered by a telemarketer. All of a sudden I hear, "Mrs Browne, this is Earlene needing to talk to you about your flight info to NIH in April". I hung up on my friend and immediately picked up the phone. "HELLLOOOO I AM HERE!" I am sure I scared her. We fly out on April 11th, all day appts on the 12th and 13th, fly home evening of 13th. They do not mess around. She has us on direct flights, shuttle is scheduled to take us to the Children's Inn on campus. We do not pay for ANYTHING. Isn't that crazy? All the flights, hotel, shuttles, appointments are all free. Well I say free. It's our taxes working for something good! NIH is government funded. I actually can't wait to learn more about it. I want to see how it all works.
Another awesome accomplishment is my dad! He has been working this past month on getting healthy so he can have his open heart surgery. We met with the surgeon last week and we have a date! March 16th. Who needs green beer when you can have green jello?!?! The surgeon was very impressed with how well dad has been doing in his rehab. Caroline and I are going to go to his rehab appt on Friday. We have fun when we go. Caroline gets tons of attention from the other patients, plus the nurses love her. Caroline is dads personal motivation!
So as you can see we are super busy, but we are having fun!