First White Dress

 Yesterday was a very special day for our baby girl. She was absolutely perfect and it was all about her. Towards the end of our church meetings I needed to step out to go feed Payton. Once I was done I knew there were only a few minutes left of Sunday school and didn't want to walk in and interrupt so I sat out in the foyer rocking my baby to sleep. The rest of the meetings somebody else had her so it was a very sweet moment for me to be able to sit with her and rock her to sleep. Telling her how special she is, how beautiful she is and specifically talking to her about her special day. I told her about her first white dress and that that day was all about her. She smiled and grinned and cooed back about me. I don't know if it's because she's my first daughter but I am way more emotional about things with her than I was with Grayson. Talking to her about her first white dress made me think back to two picture frames my mom had up in my room while growing up. One was a picture of three white dresses and the other was this poem...

My Three White Dresses

My mom bought me a white dress,
Not red or pink or blue.
She said it was a special dress
Like very other few,
There has been just one before,
A dress now put away,
That I wore some time ago
Upon my blessing day.
As a little baby clothed In my first white dress, 
My dad held me in his arms,
There to name and bless.
So pure and clean was I just then,
With time to grow and learn
About the Father's plan for me.
My glory I must earn.
Now I've reached the age to judge
The wrong road from the right,
And I am here to be baptized
In this dress of white.
So once again I'm free from sin.
The path is clear to me.
I'll grasp the rod and hold on tight, I vow with certainty.
Just as mud would stain my dress,
Sin would stain my soul.
The key is to repent or bleach,
For whiteness is my goal.
And if I try my very best,
Then richly blessed I'll be,
Wearing inside God's holy house
White dress number three,
So today I make this pledge:
I'll strive to choose the right,
Through this sacred baptism ordinance
In my second dress of white.                                            

Chris gave her a beautiful blessing. I had tears streaming down my cheeks and there were a few moments I could tell Chris did too. We got the whole thing on Chris' phone recorder so I look forward to typing that up and saving it for her. I plan to put her white dress, her bracelet and her white headband in a shadow box probably along with the actual blessing someday when she grows out of all of them.