Mattea's Dedication

This past Sunday we had Child Dedication and dedicated Mattea. To us, this is a very serious commitment to raise Mattea (and the our boys) to the best of our ability and to raise them in the knowledge of the Lord, so that hopefully one day she will make her own decision to accept Jesus as her personal Saviour. These were our words for Mattea on Sunday...

On December 5, 2007 – exactly 3 weeks early – Mattea Joy was born into our family. But, she was loved before that time. Every hiccup, roll and kick was celebrated. We watched with joy as our boys faces lit up when they would feel this little one kick, or watch my tummy roll. Her anticipated birth was discussed around the table, as was the question – will it be a boy or a girl? We kept telling our boys that God would surprise us and that regardless of the gender of this child, it was meant to be part of our family – to make our family the way God intended it.

About 3 weeks before Mattea was born, we met with a neonatologist to discuss some potential concerns. After discussing all the possible scenarios – from nothing to serious – this doctor whom we had only knew for 1 hour told us “I will pray for you and your baby”! Not only did we have our friends and family praying for Mattea’s safe arrival and health, but the top Neonatologist in Manitoba was praying for her too! God works in amazing ways. After her birth, Mattea received excellent medical care, including a rare life-saving blood transfusion that essentially replaced all her blood (or her “dirty blood as they called it) with donor or “clean” blood. Mattea was under many phototherapy lights as well, which meant that for her first 8 days of life, we could only hold her when I fed her. I would occasionally try and sneak in some extra cuddle time after a feed, until I was gently reprimanded by the nurses that she needed to go back under “the lights”. On December 13 – Mattea came home – much to the delight of her 3 older brothers. Since that day – she has been cuddled, kissed and hugged , held, and kissed and hugged some more by her brothers. They were and still are smitten with this little girl.

Mattea – you are so loved. By us- your mom & dad, your brothers, your extended family, our small group and people of this church. And even moreso, God loves you.
Your dad and I will do our best – with the help of God and our church family – in hopes that one day, you will know and love Jesus as your personal Saviour. We pray that we can show you and teach you this love in our everyday lives.

Sweet baby girl, we give you this verse from Isaiah 41,

Don’t be afraid, little one. God has promised to be with you always. He will guard you and protect you.


Sorry for the slightly blurry picture.
Enjoy the day!