April 30th

In life there are certain days that have special meanings for you. For the most part you will remember those days all of your life. Most of the time they include your birthday, birthdays of loved ones, anniversaries, maybe dates of someone's passing, and I could go on and on. There have been a few dates in Joe's and mine life that we have tried to put multiple stuff into so that it will make it easier to remember. Today is one of those days. Josie was baptized on April 30, 2006. Her dress was handmade from someone in our congregation. She did really good and Chaplain Dave Terrinoni did the service. She was baptized with water from the same place Jesus was baptized. He used it sparingly, but to him and us it meant something special. I remember that Dave held her with him at the back of the church as he greeted everyone as they exited the sanctuary for everyone to see. Afterwards we held a reception for our family and friends to celebrate this special bundle of joy that God had blessed us with. We even had friends from Birmingham come to this special event in our life. After the reception me and Other Mama attended the funeral of one of the pillars of our church, Janie Graham. Fast forward a year and this date, April 30, 2007, Joe and I found out that our second bundle of joy was a girl. We told all of our family except for our parents. We told our parents that we had decided not to find out the sex of the baby. Then we got my Aunt Elisa to make special onesies that had "Jolie" on them, and we gave all the mothers their onesies for Mothers Day. So far April 30th has not had any more special meanings for us, but we still have years and years to able to fill it up. However, today will be the day that Sheila gets to see her precious baby's heartbeat for the first time, so in way it April 30, 2009, does hold special meaning.

The other date that we have done this with is December 23rd. On December 23, 2001, Joe asked me to marry him. I wish I could tell you that it was one of the most romantic nights of our live, but because of details that I will not go into, it wasn't. No matter, the point is he asked and I said yes. Then on December 23, 2007 we batpized Jolie. Our new pastor, Jonathan Yarboro, did the service. Her dress was one that we got from Storkland in Montgomery that had red and green smocking at the top. She also did really good and everyone awed at her as Jonathan walked around holding her. That morning we also lit the advent wreath as a family. Some of the family and friends that attended went with us to Shoneys afterwards. And this date like April 30th, I'm sure holds more in store for us.