Ben's baptism and surprise visitors

(Finally catching up on some old posts)

Ben got baptized on his 8th birthday, February 27, 2010, in Gig Harbor, Washington.

We had originally thought it would be a small crowd.  We have only lived here a few months, so we don't know that many people yet.  We were excited that Grandma Hales and Grandma and Grandpa Harper were able to join us for the occasion.

But we had a few surprises. 

David's three brothers:  Howard, Steven and Matthew, drove up from Utah and Idaho to join us for the day. 

Literally.  Just for the day.  We had no idea that they were coming.

They showed up on our doorstep on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m.  I was still in my pajamas.

They hung out with David all afternoon and stayed for Ben's baptism.  Then they jumped in the car to head back to their families and their responsibilities.  They had sacrificed their weekend and drove for 12 hours each way to come say goodbye to David before he left.  We were all extremely touched.

Another girl in our ward, Lucy, also got baptized.  It was a wonderful baptism.  Rachel gave a talk on baptism.  Sarah played a flute solo.  Grandma Hales played the piano.  My friend Karin led the music.  Grandma Harper missed the whole thing because she was out in the hall with a very sad binky-less William.  (We'd left his binky at home in all the craziness of the day).  And David of course, performed the baptism.  Thanks to everyone for their sacrifices and love to make it a wonderful experience for Ben.

We were thrilled that Ben was able to get baptized before David left for Iraq.  Some of you may recall that Sarah had to wait six months to get baptized since David left for Afghanistan one week prior to her 8th birthday.  David's original report date for this deployment was three days prior to Ben's 8th birthday, and my first thought was, No not again!.  So we were grateful when his deployment got pushed back a few days. 

Then the next day we were suprised when David's sister, Carolee and two of her kids, Jared and Haley, came for a quick visit.  We had such a fun visit with them!  We were so grateful for the outpouring of love from David's family--so many came to visit and tell him goodbye before he left for Iraq.