Our Sweet Garden

We dedicated our Lael Harue last Sunday. Sitting in our living room, surrounded by my parents, my sister Julie and her husband Ryan and my sweet nephew Zeke. Our good friends Dan and Allison were here with their boys, Zeke and Reed as well. It was a sweet moment in time that I have been replaying in my mind all week, just relishing...

Josh shared about Lael's name (which is Hebrew for "of God"), annointed her with oil and asked me to share a vision that we have for all of our daughters before praying over little Ellie (her official nickname).

We believe so passionately in the importance of having our home be a vibrant place of life, creativity, learning,and relationships. We have a purpose for the connections that take shape within these walls and what happens when we head out from them into the wide open world! We are also passionate about the beauty of femininity and in the calling God has placed on women to be beautifying sources of help and support.

We love the image of the wife in the Song of Solomon, where she is described as a walled garden full of splendor and beauty, protected and preserved by the wall, which is not restrictive, but rather lovingly and carefully guarding her. We see Lael (and our other daughters) as a beautiful garden. They are to be treasured and nourished,watered and tended with all the energy a watchful gardener can muster. We asked our family to join Josh and I in our role as Lael's garden wall; we asked them to help guard and protect her sweet fragrance, her innocence, her purity...her heart. We closed our time by singing "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" all together... it was glorious.

Our Sweet Garden... our sweet girl, we are so very blessed to love her and bring her before our God.