A perfect day: a day to remember

Today was just as perfect as Ella is. Today she got baptized and chose for herself to follow her Savior and enter into a covenant with Him so she can have all the privileges and blessings He has in store for those who follow and love Him. She was excited and equally nervous about her baptism and woke up bright and early (6:30 am.) 

Anticipation and excitement filled the entire morning as we worked hard, well mamaie did most of it with some help from us, to prepare the yummy treats we were going to enjoy after the baptism (on the menu amongst other things were turkey filled pastries, spinach/smoked salmon pastries, blueberry lemon cake, crème puffs/choix a la crème, YUM!!) It was so busy that I forgot to take a picture of it all....how could that be??)

After lunch and a beautiful prayer offered by daddy in which he asked for blessings upon Ella that she would remember this very special day and the step that she would take in following her Savior, we got dressed and sat down to present Ella with gifts. She received her very own leather bound set of scriptures from mommy and daddy, a scripture bag, a beautiful earrings/pendant jewelry set, and a white sweater from mamaie and tataie, and an angel bracelet from my cousin in Romania. I wrote my testimony down for her and my feelings about baptism and this day on a little card. It was very special to me to see and hear her read it. We capture all that on film and I think it will make for a great memory later on.

Her very own brass plates. She was so excited to open her gift!

A few beautiful photos before leaving home:

I so love our family and so grateful for who we are, who we are striving to be, and what we stand for.

The beautiful setup at church.

Ella loved her pink roses and wanted to lay one of them on the table.

Here is the baptismal program:

She was so very nervous as we were getting close to start the service but tataie comforted her.

I so love these two!!! What a beautiful bond they have and special moment they shared!

The talks on baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost were so perfect, and so lovingly prepared by her Primary teachers and leaders, that they have brought tears to my eyes (and I don't cry easily!! :))

Her former Primary president (who was released just last week), Michon Burton prepared the best lesson on the Gift of the Holy Ghost using these little objects as symbols. A box of bandaids to symbolize the healing power of the Holy Ghost, life savers to remind her of its ability to protect, guide, and save her in her big and small moments in life, a candle to symbolize the light and guidance He can provide when we seek it, a little box of hand sanitizer to remind her of its cleansing power, a pair of slipper socks to remind of the power the Holy Ghost has to guide our feet and our walk in life to choose the right path when that path is maybe hard to find or hard to stay on, and finally a picture of Jesus Christ walking hand in hand with a little child, personifying the end goal of our lives, to be able to return to Him and enjoy eternal life in His presence.

                

The beautifully CTR embroidered towels was presented to her by her new Primary leadership along with a very nice welcome. Everybody just made the service so beautiful with their spirits and love.

Tataie although does not speak English, memorized the baptismal prayer in English and did a wonderful job with it and Ella. She went down twice though (just like her momma) as her elbows were out the first time. :)

She was blessed to have quite a few folks from the ward attend: Brother Thomas Colbert who is the first counselor in the bishopric and his wife, Leslie who offered the opening prayer, their children big and small, Lauri Klomp (the bishop's wife who was also one her leaders in Primary until last week) and who gave a talk on baptism, Michon who gave the talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost, Marianne Viray, my friend and the Relief Society president, her husband, James Viray, who was one of the witnesses and participated in the confirmation prayer circle, and who is Hrishi's buddy, Andrea, our dear family friend, Heather and Ramon, who unfortunately missed the actual baptism as they were stuck in traffic at stand still for 45 minutes, and a few others. The bishop honored us with his presence towards the very end as he had to work today. 

Those roses are so fragrant and gorgeous.  

We celebrated at home in the evening with a delicious dinner of mici, baked potato, and broccoli. Yum!!