The Boys' Baptism

We had been looking for a while for a church to call "our own" --- years in fact, but nothing really fit both of us, individually and as a couple. Earlier this year we came across Oakdale Emory when we went to a marriage conference and felt perfectly at home! We felt much more spiritually connected to God than we had ever felt before, and to each other! We knew this was where we wanted to get our boys baptized. So this past Sunday, with Matt's mom in town, we got both boys baptized. Dylan's godparents are my cousin Meghan and my brother Kyle (both far right in the picture). Parker's godparents are my brother Paul (third from right) and Matt's sister Brenda (not pictured -- she unfortunately had to leave a day early to head back to MT). We had Pastor Kevin Baker baptize the boys because he's the one who helped renew our faith together.

Dylan being baptized:

 Parker being baptized:

Parker giving a stare-down during Pastor Kevin's prayer :)

Check out the video screen in the back -- pretty cool, huh?? :)

 Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma with us

 Graves family photo

 Parker and his godfather

 Mom Gerking and Mom & Dad Graves with us

 Family with Mom Gerking. Check out how tired Dylan is!!! :)

 Family with Mom & Dad Graves. Look at my sleepy boy! Can we say NAPTIME?!?!! :)

 With the Godparents (minus Brenda).

One of the things we really like about our church is that they are very technologically advanced. All the services are streamed live and on-demand online. This allowed out-of-town relatives to watch the baptism on Sunday, and really feel like they were part of it too. Here's links (both should be the same) of the actual service itself, including the baptism (which is about 17 minutes into the service).
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18208456
http://oeumc.org/407978.ihtml

We feel so blessed to be able to celebrate this special time in our boys' life with those close to us. We really appreciate all the love and support from family and friends.