Ice Park and Philly's Baptism

During the last two months I have been seeking "Alaskan" things to do to add to my list of things we have tried on my Journey of "Learning to love Alaska". In March the kids had Spring break and we took them to see the ice sculpture festival up here. We had heard that this may be the last year and I really wanted the kids to experience it, heck I wanted to experience it... SO we bundled up and wore to pairs of socks ( a tip from a friend!) and off we went. It was so cool to see and the kids had so much fun. There were ice slides of every shape and size and bowls of ice which were nearly impossible to escape and so much more to see. It was truly a nice family outing! The kids loved it and it was fun to have Shaun and Tina come with us. The kids enjoy Alexis so much and they had such a good time with up until her sled broke and the poor thing was heartbroken! Still all in all it was way fun for all of us!

Phil said this was a good look for me! Haha

 

 

 

In February our Philly turned 8 and that meant he was old enough to be baptized. He also got to start Scouts and was super excited about that too. So this past week we had our meeting with the Bishop and I went in with Philly partly out of curiosity  over what he would say to the Bishop and partly out of fear for what he would say. We have had several discussions on Baptism and in true Philly fashion he usually could care less. SO in we went and the Bishop asks Philly why we get baptized and he says, "to turn 8 and grow up!". Well that's partly true said the Bishop and the rest of the meeting pretty much went the same way. At the end Philly says, " See you Saturday, we'll have cookies!" He cracks me up!

  I was giving his talk on baptism and as I read about it I came across a scripture in Matthew I think! That said that mentally challenged persons should not be baptized because they are innocent and there is no need. Well this hit me so hard! Does Philly fall under this category or is he just on the other side of it? He can tell right from wrong most of the time. He gets most of what we say, at least I think. I think it hit me this way because this same week he had an ancestry report due at school and try as I might I could not get him to comprehend it. At one point he told me to please stop talking about my great, great, great Grandpa and let him be because I was hurting his brain! It was so overwhelming and I felt so saddened by his lack of interest. Yes I realize he is barely eight but I have other children and know what to expect from an eight yr old. Instantly my mind goes into his future and I stress what it holds for him. What kind of life will he have? Will people treat him badly because he looks normal but has hang ups, will they take advantage of his inability to understand that someone may not be his friend and may be being cruel? He makes my heart sad and my cup runneth over all at the same time! In him I see the pure light of Christ, an innocent soul! He makes me laugh almost daily and I truly could not imagine our world without him in it, so as we baptized him this past Saturday I could not help but wonder what the world holds for my little guy and if we are doing right by him! His baptism turned out great and he was more excited than I could have anticipated and his dive into the baptismal font made it all the more a Philly type of day! I feel so blessed to have him and the other little souls in my family in my life! I pray that is future will hold many great things and that he has a great roll in God's plan!