Tamara turned the BIG 8

Tamara had made the choice for herself to be baptized on her 8th birthday. Her and I experienced MUCH emotion before her big birthday/baptism day. It was difficult for her to come to terms of reality of what this would mean. For it meant that she would physically in age catch up to her older brother. She mentioned many times in the past that she never wanted to turn 8 and become older then her big brother Caleb. I explained several times that I didn't want things to chance either, but told her that whether or not we felt that we were ready it would come just the same. I knew that this special 'emotional' event would be a difficult one for me and our family. SO I called in my friends of faith; of family and friends nearby to come, support, cry and share in this moment with us.

I have such an incredible love for my amazing friends of faith. Regardless of what physical church we choose to attend too, they came to support and give us strength through the love of our Savior Jesus Christ. It is such an amazing source of strength that I draw from these friends of faith. And I received an amazing sense of ONE-NESS. It is the same God that we worship, the same Jesus Christ that we love and look to for a perfect example and follow in baptism. Regardless of the way that we choose to worship- it is the same God Head that we love together, and this is what unifies us as ONE. And our Heavenly Father has given us a bigger family of faith then what we really think. I rejoice with all my friends of faith, it is an honor to be there for them as they are and have been here for me and my family. It gives me much courage within to be able to stand as ONE, as I am reminded that it is only ourselves that divide our ONE of faith. Our friendship is not one of judgement or of offense, it is a very special friendship- of unconditional love, mutual respect, and support through the spirit and love of Jesus Christ. We do not feel the need or pressure to convert or to feel that we are trying to be converted, because know that we all have already been converted to Jesus Christ in our personal lives, and that it is only the spirit of God that is given that role to convert. And for us, our role is to only reach out in unconditional love, mutual respect, and support each other as friends in faith... helping our God to unify his children as ONE.

We would personally like to thank our special family and friends of faith for being here for us on this emotional birthday baptism day. You will never know how much your support, love and prayers have meant to us during this monumental step forward our family has taken.

=)LOVE, The Mathison Family