Thomas has an announcement!!

 On March 2nd 2013 at 11:00 AM

Thomas will be baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

He and Matt met with the bishop last night and it has been determined that Thomas is all ready to be baptized.  I'm so proud of him.  As I got him ready in his black dress pants, white shirt and watched Matt help him tie his tie, I couldn't help but tear up a little as I watched my baby boy head off with his daddy to his very first bishop's interview.

We have been trying to prepare him for baptism for a while now.  I have taken him to his friend's baptisms so he knows what to expect and we've been doing family nights on baptism for a few months now.  He answered all the bishop's questions correctly.  My favorite thing he says is

"We are baptized by air-mersion" (immersion) "That means we go all the way under the water."

Even though Thomas is an amazing kid, and I have no worries whatsoever about him making good choices, I worry that I didn't do a good enough job preparing him for the age of accountability.  How can you ever feel like you've done enough?

"Have I made sure to help him build good habits with prayer and scripture study?"

"Does he know enough about repentance?"

"We were inactive for most of Thomas' life so far."

"Does he know what he's even accountable for?"

These are the very things we've been addressing during family home evenings for the last little while in hopes to prepare him, and he seems to be very knowledgeable. It's just hard to watch your kids grow up so fast.  There are so many things I would do differently and he's only 8! (well, almost)

I will say this for Thomas, I've never known a kid quite like him.  He is very kind to everyone.  He talks about kids he sees playing alone on the playground and feeling bad for them, so he invites them to come play with him and his friends.

About 2 weeks ago, Matt and I took all the kids to UVU's basketball game.  It was mascot night and it was SO much fun!!

Thomas accidentally drank a small sip of my Diet Coke thinking it was his root beer, and felt so bad he was on the verge of tears! I had to calm him down and assure him that he didn't do anything wrong.  I remember begging my parents at his age to let me drink caffeine and here Thomas is, not wanting to even touch the stuff.

Same thing goes with video games.  Thomas is a huge fan of video games  He's getting to the age where he kind of likes the first-person shooters like Halo.  We have a game that very sporadic swearing. So sporadic that I had never even heard it swear before so I thought it was pretty OK to let him play!  The first time I gave him permission to play it, the first thing he did was mute the TV.  I asked him why he had turned the sound off and he replied 

"Sometimes this game says bad words, and I don't want to hear it."

Thomas is an amazing little boy.  I have never met another child with the strength he has to stand up to his peers and integrity to come to Matt and I and admit his mistakes.  He does have moments that deserve a pat on the tush, but honestly, he's the little boy of any mother's dreams.

                                                                                                                          

Thomas, your mom and dad are extremely proud of you.  We hope that one day you will realize just how special and destined for greatness you are.  Always remember that you're the son of a king, and as much as your mom and dad here on Earth love you, we don't have near the capacity to love you as much as your Heavenly Father loves you!  That's A LOT!  He wants you to be happy and will only ask you to do things that will bring you that happiness no matter how hard the things he asks you to do are!  There might be sometimes in your life, you need to remind dad and I, whose child you are first and foremost, and if  the goals we have for you don't quite match up with the goals you feel your Heavenly Father has for you, never be afraid to put us in our place.

Always be polite, but always be honest.  Even if the truth gets you into trouble.  It's better for the people around you to be angry with you for a short time than to offend your Heavenly Father.  If you tell the truth and end up with a punishment, I promise that no matter how alone you may feel, the spirit will endure your punishment with you, and you will feel God's love, even if at the moment it's hard to feel loved at all.  Please remember that no matter how it may feel at times, Mom and Dad will always love you too.  Even if we don't love the choices you might make at times, there isn't a single thing you could ever do to make us not love you.  

Please don't be afraid of your mistakes.  You learn far more from mistakes than you do from perfection, however trying your very best to not make mistakes makes the journey easier. When you mess up, repent and forget about what you did, but take with you the lessons you learned. It doesn't matter how you get to where you want to go, some paths you may take will be easier than others, it only matters that you get there.  And I promise that dad and I will meet you there, although an amazing kid like you might just make it there first.