Jayna's Baptism

Jayna was baptized this Sunday, August 24, 2014.  Originally she wanted baptized at our former church, Thomas Road, by Pastor Jonathan this past May.  However, Pastor Jonathan was on vacation for two Sundays.  During this same time period Mom and Dad switched churches from jumbo-super sized Thomas Road to a much smaller (maybe 150 people) Oasis Church.  So since Jayna couldn't be baptized that week by Pastor Jonathan, and it would have to be delayed til June, she decided to wait until Uncle Zach and Aunt Rebekah could come and attend.  Zach and Rebekah have been in Guam for the past three years but were scheduled to come home the first week of August.
Jayna hasn't liked the children's church program at Thomas Rd for over a year and has chosen to go to the adult services with me instead.  I think there are too many people, chaos for her.  So Jayna started going to church with grandma and Poppy to Oasis the last week of May, while Anthony and I stayed at Thomas Rd through most the summer.
Jayna met with the Pastor's wife regarding baptism in late July.  I started attending Oasis with Anthony in August.  Anthony isn't the biggest fan.  He went from a church program with tons of bells and whistles to a more typical children's church program.
As seems typical in life, all the best intentions and plans--- fall through.  Zach and Rebekah called on Friday to say they were no longer able to come to Jayna's baptism on Sunday.  They had to take their dog to the vet for a surgery.  Unfortunately being brand new to their area (Baltimore) they didn't have n established vet and felt they were being taken advantage of, so they drove Steeler, their dog to Rebekah's home town where she has an established family vet.  I think they drove from Baltimore to Maine on Wednesday.  They called me Thursday morning during my post-third-shift nap.  Thursday their plan was to come by train to Lynchburg on Saturday.  However by Friday they realized it wasn't possible between travel time, travel price tags, and worrying about their Steeler dog who was going to have surgery this coming Thursday.  They have postponed their visit til after Steeler's surgery.  Maybe over my birthday weekend- the kids have 3 days off that weekend.

Thursday stunk because I had to break it to Anthony Steeler wasn't coming w/ Uncle Zach and Aunt Rebekah and he is super dyingly anxious to see "his" dog--- so he was mad and upset.
Then Friday it was worse when I had to tell Jayna they weren't coming.  She cried hysterically.  She was extremely upset.  Then Saturday morning she got it in her head they were tricking her.  They were going to show up and surprise her.  I told her no they weren't but she was hoping so hard.  Today she said "They really aren't coming to my baptism".  Three years is a long stretch for adult sibling to go w/o visits but it's practically torture for a niece and an Uncle- especially an Uncle who lived with her for years, was always easily accessible, and whom she adored.

Then Grandma Pam came down with a flu-like virus and had to cancel on attending too.

However onto the happier and the nit-picky agitating...
Jayna did end up with a large fan base supporting her at church this morning/  Remember she's only been attending here about 3 months.  She doesn't have a bunch of friends and the ones she had were in the children's church class.  However, Jayna did have
mom, dad and big brother
Grandma and Poppy
Uncles Joe and Mark
neighbors and friends Angie, Kayla and Caiden
Nana Jan, Cousin Kierra and Carmen
friend Justine
her friends Will, Diamond and Alexus
17 people who came to watch her be baptized!
They started baptisms with the youth (middle and high school group), then they went to the adults and announced "and last to be baptized is....) So YES they forgot Jayna.  Dad spoke up after that lady's Baptism as another pastor went on stage to progress to the next segment of church, so they back tracked and did Jayna's baptism.  Every other person who had been baptized, when they came on stage the Pastor baptizing asked for that person's friends and family to stand in support of that person.  Since they forgot Jayna all together, they also skipped that part of her baptism.  I don't think she noticed, but I did.  Not to mention she would have been the youngest person baptized with the most people present to support her.  No big deal- it's done and over, but notes to remember if Anthony chooses to be baptized at some point.... ensure they don't forget him.

Unfortunately I was trying to video tape it as requested by Zach and Rebekah, but I wanted still photographs myself.... if ended up being a slightly shaky video and blurry pictures, so this is the "snap chat" picture Uncle Joe took- slightly edited as best I could.  I do think the church got a better picture, so I can update it at a later time.

After church we headed to Grandma and Poppy's along with Will, Diamond, Alexus and Justine for a lunch together.  Justine made Jayna her own brownies, much to Jayna's happiness!
We head to my house after lunch and the kids played until 7pm.  Then I went to pick their mom up from work and dropped them all off at home. 
Overall Jayna had a great day, no nervousness really, a lot of family and friends, and a great after church meal and playdate!