the most reluctant convert

  On October 31, Athena Blythe became the newest member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

A few years ago when I was in our stake's Relief Society presidency, we did training with each unit on how to meet the needs of the individual sisters. Time was at a premium but I found an experience on a church social media account that I felt led by the Spirit to share in each ward. The quote was by a woman who was sharing her experience of not feeling like her family fit in to the regular church cookie cutter. She outlined her situation and pleaded that what she needed was for people to not be afraid or put off by their situation but to move in closer and as a sign of support. In her experience, the sister mentions that one situation in which we should move in closer is when a family has a child that does not want to be baptized. At the time I thought it was a strange and surely rare phenomenon to have a child not want to get baptized. Most kids just want to get baptized! As per usual, this spiritual message was more for me than for the sisters. In this case, my quote was a spiritual foreshadowing of Athena Blythe's baptism. Athena Blythe was not interested in getting baptized and nothing could persuade her. She was vocal and adamantly against the idea for well over a year before she turned 8! We tried everything; extra baptism lessons, attending as many baptisms as we could, NOT talking about it and seeing if the desire would happen anyway. Various (un)helpful people took it upon themselves(even after we repeatedly asked them not to) to try and convince her by mentioning all the pomp and circumstance aspects of a baptism ceremony, but to my actual relief she rebuffed these people too. I certainly didn't want Athena Blythe to want to get baptized because there was going to be a party for her. Parties and cake have their place but the message of the baptism can easily get lost in the cultural pageantry surrounding baptisms. Athena Blythe will not do anything that is not 100% her idea, which thrills me that she will not easily cave to peer pressure but her obstinate and persistent nature makes her nearly impossible to live with when she is perseverating on a concept. When she finally decided to get baptized 6 months after her 8th birthday, I knew it was because she was ready and had a bit of an understanding of what she was doing.

my sister in law, shayla, is an incredibly gifted gift giver. she just knows how to make things thoughtful and lovely. she sent athena blythe these delightful cookies. 

we did plan for a post-baptism outdoor gathering with friends here in town. FYI, october is a great time for visiting. it's still summer but not sweltering summer. grandma sandy flew in and we had pizza, chik fil a and a cake. Athena Blythe drew a blueprint for the cake and you can see her inspecting the final product in this photo.

"Why isn't the frosting RED!" exclaimed the always grateful daughter.

She was also not pleased that I added the ghosts for an attempt at a humorous holy ghost halloween baptism joke. When I picked up the cake she had originally written in frosting, "Happy Baptist", which makes no sense(especially since Athena Blythe is anything but) but the decorator was able to fix it before I brought it home.

our pre-ordinance family photos:

one of my favorite photos of 2020.

I pride myself on a swift baptism service and this one clocked in at a sweet 27 minutes. Musical numbers were not allowed due to covid restrictions(and my relief). You will never seen a baptism guest of honor video montage set to music at one of my baptisms. If that's your jam, I salute you. I choose less and so that I am actively choosing my own sanity. Both Grandmas were able to speak on baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost and we given strict instructions to keep it at 3-5 minutes. One was compliant, the other was oblivious.

Because we live under the ever present specter of sensory overload, we took extra steps to ensure sensory compliance:

Athena Blythe insisted on dressing as Cinderella instead of purchasing a white dress so I ordered a long sleeved skin-toned leotard to wear under the itchy, lacy bodice of the dress. Athena Blythe was able to tolerate the headband for the duration of the second half of the baptism but it is now lost to that same mysterious dimension that all discarded hair accoutrements occupy. It is somewhere, but certainly not here. The black choker ribbon lasted about as long  as the headband but was quickly requisitioned for use as a stuffed animal leash. The dress didn't make it through the post baptism party and I wish I had gotten a photo of her jumping on the trampoline in her skin-colored leotard. This was a celebration of baptism not soon to be forgotten or duplicated.

Later that night, after a rather torrential downpour, we attempted pandemic-style trick or treating. We all dressed up as bad guys, since that is always who Reagan wants to prevail in movies.

Wreck It Ralph, the Joker, Johnny Lawrence, Bane, Queen Chrysalis from My Little Pony, and a T-rex. 

 I looked so good in this wig that a few weeks later I colored my hair nearly this shade of blonde and I started picking fights with local new kids.

the end