Today, Cohen was baptized, and I couldn’t be prouder of him. He was so excited for this special day! We waited until the Harkers and Grandma Neu arrived in town so we could have family there to celebrate with us. I’m so glad we did, especially since we don’t know many people at church yet. It was wonderful to have a room full of smiling faces there to support him.
Cohen asked his grandmas to give the two talks. Grandma Neu spoke about baptism, and Grandma Anderson gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. They both did such a beautiful job, and Cohen was so eager to answer all their questions during the talks—it was adorable! For his witnesses, Cohen chose his aunts, Kari and Emilie, which I thought was such a fun and meaningful choice. While Cohen was getting dressed after his baptism, I had everyone in the audience write little notes for him to keep as a memory of the day. We also enjoyed a lovely musical number performed by Grandma Neu and Clara (Cohen’s cousin), which added such a special touch.
Several people from our ward came to support Cohen, including his two Primary teachers, the Primary president Sunny Cathcart, the missionaries (who had come over to give Cohen the discussions), the Swiss family, and Gayle and Liam Dunkel. Of course, my family was there too, with Lydia and James running around causing their usual chaos!
The After Party
Afterward, we headed back to our house for soup, rolls, and cake. We served Cohen’s favorite—clam chowder (made by me)—along with broccoli cheese soup (made by Grandma Anderson) and wild rice soup (made by Emilie). For dessert, we had cake along with an assortment of sweets like cookies and cream puffs, courtesy of Grandma Neu—because you can always count on her to bring extra treats! The kids ran around having the time of their lives. It was definitely a madhouse, but thankfully our house is big enough that it didn’t feel too overwhelming.
It truly was an amazing day filled with so many memorable moments. One of my favorites was when Cohen stepped into the font and squatted down like he was about to swim—I couldn’t help but laugh! Another highlight was during Grandma Neu’s talk about Jesus being perfect and needing to be baptized. Cohen chimed in with, “Yeah, Jesus needed to get baptized because otherwise he would be sinning (because baptism is a commandment).” Everyone laughed and agreed—it was such a funny and insightful comment! I’d never thought about it that way before.
All in all, it was such a special day for Cohen and our family—a day full of love, laughter, and cherished memories!
