Next Installment: The baptism

i've never been baptized. i remember my younger sister getting baptized. going through the preparations. up on stage. getting dunked. i never had the desire. not really sure why. i suppose a lot of people get baptized in middle school or high school. i wasn't exactly living a holy life during that time. i was too busy leading the double life of good-youth-group-attending-girl and doing-things-i-shouldn't-girl.

i'd say i really became a christian when i accepted/re-accepted christ, august 5th, 2002. the idea of baptism never really presented itself and even after the first two years of living as a missionary it never occurred to me. but the holy spirit started moving.

we've planned to do it several times in the last two years but things have always come up. i was going to get baptized last year on september 13th, then mike's dad, joe, died on the 10th. then i planned on doing it in the spring after nohemi was born, but an earthquake decided to destroy haiti and those plans were thwarted as well.

but this summer, i went to a youth conference to help with praise and worship, and felt god say, "goody, it is well past time."

so fast forward to august 28th (the same day my godson was born!) and we made it happen. i'll try and just let the pictures speak for themselves but just know that it was an amazing day.

i love watching people love up on our kids (our great friends, will and audrey)

jackie and one of her little ones and dave schwulst (i was baptized at his family's compound)

cherry schwulst, an incredible woman of god, mentor and friend

deb, who happens to look stunning with a canopy backdrop

mike and our friend, isaias, were the ones who baptized me

i love this one...it was so amazing to have my husband baptize me

dominican tradition is to take a jump in the pool, river, lake, wherever after you're baptized. landon wanted to do it too.

i seriously could not believe how many of the people i care about came to this, i was only expecting a handful. it was so surreal.

Deb and Tim Visit the Dominican

i think it was the fastest week in the history of time. i prayed and prayed for God to slow it down but to no avail. but besides the fact that it went fast - it was a great, great visit. super relaxing. we had no agenda. we literally woke up and asked, "so what do we want to do today?" and sometimes the answer was, "nothing." and man did that feel good.

now, in order to thoroughly document their trip in the blog world, it is going to require a couple installments. i didn't even start taking pictures until friday of their trip (they came tuesday) and somehow still ended up with like 300 photos. so this is the first installment.

friday.

we have these good, no, great friends that live in the mountains. dave and cherry are seriously an incredible couple. and they are incredibly generous with what they have. our purpose for visiting them was 1) to see them, cause we rarely ever do, 2) go swimming, eat until our tummies hurt and relax, and 3) baptize me. (photos of the baptism will be in a separate installment)

imagine, if you will, a place that takes you away. reminds you of god's incredible artistic abilities. helps you forget all your worries and focus on the important things in life. heaven on earth. that is the Schwulst Compound.

where fruit straight from the garden of eden dangle from every tree. where kids get bronzed by the sun in the pool. where the smell of food and the sound of laughter ring through the mountain landscapes.

i loved every second of it. just being with our family and friends in a place like that. we are totally going back sometime in the near future for a family vacation. we're not really beach-and-hotel, kind of people. but we are natural-river-fed-pool-and-brats-on-the-grill, kind of people.

landon was a fish. at first he was a little unsure if he wanted anything to do with the pool, but once he took that first plunge, we couldn't get him out. and there's just something that illuminates children's skin, contrasted with a mossy waterfall.

uncle timmy (or uncle bimmy, as landon calls him) was landon's hero. there is something about people coming to the dominican that solidifies their relationship with landon. don't get me wrong, he loves his family back in the states. but if you want him to love you more, you have to come into his territory.

and there's something really cool about airplane floaties.

(this one is especially cool because Gaga, mike's dad who passed away a year ago, gave this to landon when he was a year old)

mike is a different person when all his family is around. he thrives on family. he loves when family is here; in the dominican with us. i think he had this amazing smile on his face the whole week. i heart him.

i realized that i went this whole post without a single picture of me in it. which i actually kinda like. i loved just capturing life that day. watching them breathe it all in. loving each other. feeling stresses disappear. and honestly, i don't know how it all works, the whole angels in heaven thing. but if joe was able to, i know he was hanging out that day, watching his family enjoy life together.

and family can make any normal friday, pretty special.