What a Blessing!

On January 9th this beautiful little blessing came into our lives, and on May 2nd we blessed him in Church.

Getting ready (you may not realize it but this is actually the extremely narrowed down version!!!) :

This outfit was loaned  given to us by our lovely neighbors the Sufias. I was really hoping to get a cute blessing outfit for him (despite Varian's suggestion of just using a white onsie). They brought this outfit over to us and I tried to clarify right then (and about 4 other times) if it was ours to keep or just to borrow but with a bit of language barriers and awkwardness we never really were quite sure what they originally intended. But in the end we have the outfit and can now use it for our other boys, keep it in a memory box, and maybe even use it for future grandsons. :) 

The day went so smoothly (mostly). We felt very supported from all our family and friends that were able to come in person and those that were there in spirit. 

 

  

 

HITCH OF THE DAY

Did everything go perfectly? Well pretty much. Yes you could stay we coerced our friends into giving us his outfit, yes Jaren did spew all over the church floor to the point that someone even ran to get a mop (seriously it's just a little bit of baby spit-up), yes he didn't smile lots for the post blessing pictures but he wasn't crying; so yes, other than the one main hitch - things went well. I felt so calm and relaxed and peaceful. Heavenly Father blessed my heart not to be upset that none of my family and Utah friends could be there - though it helped knowing I'd be coming home soon to see them. The food and party preparations all came together. Many of our family and friends were able to come that day to support us. So what was the big hitch then?

Our ward for one reason or the other wouldn't use microphones for blessings and confirmations. It became a bit of a soap box / pet peeve for me even though most of them were done in Samoan and I wouldn't have been able to understand them even if I could hear them. But really - what about those Samoan mothers who had sacrificed so much to bring a new life into the world - weren't they entitled to at least hear the blessing?!?! While we were debating which country to bless him in, I insisted that the congregation and I actually be able to hear the blessing. Luckily my sweet husband, who had seen my frustration of this over the years, and our sweet bishop did manage to find a working microphone that day. So when I wasn't really able to hear the blessing that day, it was no lack of microphone or consideration on the leaders part that was the cause.

 

In addition to wanting to hear the blessing (I know that's asking so much) I was also anxious to have it recorded. I've always tried to write down blessings for my family, but even writing at super speed you still miss a lot. So I asked a few people to write down what they could and then we also tried to record it. From my white-bible missionary days I remember it saying that you could record blessings for your own personal use. Well we gave Warren someone the assignment to record the blessing on a phone that our uncle brought. BUT instead of pushing record he pushed play and out comes this crazy music. He then fiddles with it and shoves it into his pocket, presumably off. The blessing begins and so does something else. Yes, instead of turning the phone off it just skipped to the next song on the play list. At first it sounds like one of those 70's mormon pop songs. But then as it gets louder and louder I realize that it's Karen Carpenter singing away. 

We had invited non-member friends to come that day, and just the pressure of the day had built up and all I could focus on was the sound of the Carpenters crooning and I found myself missing big chunks of the blessing and feeling a bit frustrated. The worst part was that many of the members asked us later if we had planned it - a little background music to make the day more special. Embarrassing! :) But something we tried to laugh about later. *Sigh*

So in the end it was a really great day that overall went really smoothly with just one little technological difficulty. But really - it could have been a lot worse. So here's a YouTube music video of what was playing in the background in the chapel as Jaren was getting blessed: Karen Carpenter's "I need to be in Love"

ps: In the end, we were able to get a different recording of the blessing. So all's well that end's well. :) And it will always go down as a blessing to remember. After all, who doesn't need to be in love?