Doubly Blessed

He took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. 

Mark 10:16

This morning, Ezra and Elliott were blessed in church. The purpose of this ceremony is to name the child before God and give the baby a special blessing. Typically, the father gives the blessing, while several other brethren (family members and close friends) gather around the baby. The blessing does not have to be performed at church (we had a private blessing for Eliza), but we decided to have the ceremony in front of the congregation in order to involve all of the loving people who have recently helped us.

Getting to church on time with three children was utterly chaotic. Nathan had only slept a couple of hours, and I was worried he would fall asleep while saying the prayer. My main concern, though, was making sure Ezra was blessed as Ezra and that Elliott was blessed as Elliott. I wanted the children named correctly before God. That seemed pretty important to me. The night before, I could hardly sleep as I envisioned a scenario where the babies were blessed with the wrong names.

Stressful. Very stressful. And knowing us, it was possible. Very possible.

When the time came for Nathan to bless the first child, I looked at the baby he was holding and whispered, "That's Ezra." Imagine my surprise, then, when just a minute later, I hear Nathan saying: "Elliott Dailey Robbins..."

Cheryl, my mom, and I all opened our eyes and began frantically inspecting the sleeping baby my mother was holding for clues of his identity. I immediately looked at his ear for the tell-tale sign (Ezra's ear has an extra ridge) and was relieved to see that the correct baby was being blessed. Apparently, Nathan knows his sons better than I do.

The babies each received a beautiful, personal blessing and were perfect angels throughout the rest of the meeting. Fortunately, no one asked to hold them or even attempted to touch them. Thank you, kind people! I was worried I was going to have to be rude. 

The best part of the event: the baby clothes. Nathan's grandmother found two crocheted outfits for the occasion, and they fit the boys perfectly. Nathan loved the sweater vests (of course). 

I did my best to look awake and then attempted to hold both babies without dropping them.

Nathan rescued one baby and we managed to get a photo with both babies not crying. Success! (I love Ezra's finger sticking up, as if to say: "Wait a minute!" Nathan likes to think he was saying, "Robbins Family, number ONE!")

And, we were so glad my mom could make it for the event. We're also happy to have her help for the week. Moms are pretty wonderful.