May is a busy month for birthdays in our home – both Mr Flutter & Hannah celebrate birthdays, 2 days apart. Hannah’s is first. Poor Neil – usually by the time his comes around everyone is a bit “birthday-ed out”. But we always do our best to make it an event to remember.
This year Hannah’s birthday was extra special. About a month ago, she wrote a note and stuck it on her door. It said – “Mum and Dad, can I please get baptised?” then she drew a yes/no underneath and blue-tacked a pen to the door for us to circle our answer. I left it for a few weeks to see what would happen because I wanted to have a discussion about why she wanted to get baptised, and what it meant to her etc. But her reasons seemed solid, and she knew her mind strongly, so one day I circled yes and waited to see how long it would take before she noticed. Abbie noticed first; she came racing in and said “Mum, did you really do this” as if by magic it happened itself. And, that is how Hannah came to get baptised, on her birthday, at “Messy Church.”
This is actually nothing to do with Hannah’s birthday – she is dressed up pink for anti-bullying day last week. But I thought it depicted her personality perfectly.
“Messy Church” is something that happens once per month at my parent’s church. It’s essentially a big messy craft/rowdy activity gathering followed by dinner. A large number of the people that go don’t regularly attend church. It’s obviously made an impact on Hannah because it was entirely her idea to ask to get baptised, let alone ask to be baptised at messy church for her birthday. I mean, what typical 9 year old wants to have her birthday party at church?! I sure wouldn’t have when I was 9. I couldn’t be more proud of the girl my Hannah is becoming. She’s growing up so fast and knows what she wants from life.
It was nice that my Mum and Dad were both there to present Hannah with her baptism candle. The baptism/birthday party was followed up by a sleepover.
Sunday was Neil’s birthday. It turned into a whole weekend affair because we celebrated Saturday and Sunday in the end. Lucky him.
So that’s 2 birthdays down for the year. Next up Abbie turns 7. [Seriously WHERE did those 7 years go!?!] Then I have to wait until November for mine. But, it will be worth it because we’ve booked tickets to Fiji – waHOOOO can’t wait!
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