Emma's Gotcha Day & Dedication

On Saturday, we had a fun party dedicating Emma & celebrating her Gotcha Day!

We had planned to have the party in a pavilion at a park nearby.  But, it rained so much on Friday that we knew the kids would get dirty from playing on a wet playground.  It was supposed to be cloudy and damp all Saturday morning, too; so, on Friday night, we changed our plans and decided to have the party at our house.  I owe a HUGE thank you to my parents and Dave who pitched in and helped me clean and get the house ready!  (The upside of waiting until the last minute to have a party at your house means that you really don't have much time to stress about cleaning and getting ready at all!)  :)

Emma snuggling with my dad before all the guests arrived!

Can you read her little shirt?  Forever a Rinn!

We are so thankful that this sweet girl is ours!

Truly, she isn't ours--she is God's, and part of the purpose of our celebration was to dedicate her to God and acknowledge that Emma ultimately is His.  David and I are so blessed and humbled that God has chosen us to raise this precious girl.

For Emma's dedication, David shared that he & I are committed to raising Emma in a home where she can learn and experience the love of Jesus.  Our ultimate prayer is that she will trust Jesus as her Savior and look to Him her entire life.  As parents, David & I realize that this is a huge responsibility that can only be fulfilled through the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives and in our family.  After sharing our commitment to raise Emma in this way, my dad, some of our dear friends, and David prayed over Emma.

  ^{"For this child I prayed, and He has answered my prayer.}

^{Now I am giving her to the Lord, and she will belong to the Lord her whole life."  I Samuel 1:27-28a}

While we were praying for Emma, she fell asleep in Dave's arms.
Isn't this picture precious?  This is one proud dad--and one content baby girl.

This was my first time to plan a girly party--and I had so much fun!

Thank you to some of my sweet friends for borrowing me lots of poms!  I tried my hand at making one (using this tutorial), and my friends' were just so much better that I decorated with theirs!  :)  I also had a lot of fun looking at ideas on Pinterest.  This fun blog gave me a lot of inspiration on decorating for a breakfast party!



Emma was a trooper!  She usually takes a morning nap from 9 - 11, but stayed awake for almost her entire party!

Wasn't it just yesterday we were having a joint Gotcha Day party for Isaac & Landrie? 

Speaking of Isaac and Landrie, they loooooove Miss Shamron!  Shamron took care of them many, many Sundays in the Baby Suite at Keystone and still adores them!  (The feeling is mutual!)  ;)

 Thank you to many of our friends and family for celebrating Emma with us! 

And, we know that there are many, many more of you who have prayed with us through Emma's adoption--we love you all!

A few years ago, David & I were longing for a baby in our arms.  God knew that we would someday be parents to children in our home, but I was hurting so much that I couldn't even imagine the joy that was ahead of us!  Now, I will never get over the wonder of God's incredible plan that I see every day when I look at my precious boy and girl. 

God, You are faithful!