The Saturday "7"

This is going to be a quick one, because I don't actually have that much to say this week. Mostly, I just want to share the exciting news that I teased last week:

1. Lucy got baptized on Sunday! When she told me a couple months ago that she wanted to get baptized, I was shocked but tried to play it cool. Lol. Our church does two baptisms a year. At Easter, the baptism is in the pool at church. You record your testimony ahead of time and it's projected on the big screen. In the fall, the baptism is at a lake in a nearby park. You have to give your testimony in front of the crowd into a microphone. Lucy was mortified at the thought of appearing on the big screen, so she wanted to do the fall baptism in the lake. It was actually quite a process of attending a meeting to go over the Biblical definition of baptism, then a meeting with the deacons to essentially prove that you're a Christian and you have the right reasons for being baptized, and then the actual baptism itself. While she never wavered in her intentions, a small part of did not fully expect her to go through with it. Haha. She was very nervous, but kept herself composed. On Sunday, it rained buckets all afternoon, so the baptism was moved back to church. Lucy was unbothered by the switch since she knew it was too late to record a big-screen presentation. Haha. She was, however, a little taken aback by having to give her testimony from the podium on the stage! I've never seen it done like that before, so I'm sure she hasn't. But she did SO well. I had terrible second-hand anxiety for her, but she gave her testimony like a champ and didn't even look nervous!

Justin prayed for her afterward, so he got to be up there too.

She got to be baptized by her youth pastor, so that made it a little easier

2. One of the really cool things about her testimony is that, while she "prayed the prayer" with me as a 5 year old, she was really inspired to make her faith her own because of a book she read! Books have power, people! She read The Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn this year, and it made an impression on her. She said in her testimony that she always considered herself a Christian, but never really took her faith seriously until reading that book. And I've honestly seen the change in her temperament over the past few months. I can tell that she's trying, and that God is working in her heart. I shared on facebook that I've been praying through Scripture for my kids lately (and loving it - I'll probably share more on that later), and this verse really stood out to me: Philippians 2:13, "For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him." That's our prayer for Lucy and all our kids!

3. In much less spiritual news . . . I discovered this week that the first house Justin and I owned is back on the market. We bought it as a foreclosure in 2009 for $87,000, sold it in 2014 for $130,000 (and paid off our student loans with the profit! Woot woot!), and it's currently listed at $269,000!!! Crazy how much can change in 13 years! It was a little sentimental looking through the pictures posted in the listing. The current owners didn't change much, other than paint colors, so it brought back some serious memories of Lucy's baby days, and being so painfully pregnant with Lena. Haha.