Baby Zane's Blessing

Not many babies get a blessing as unique and surprising as Zane's.

As you may recall, Zane came a week and a half earlier than expected - which meant that poor Granny Zo'An had to wait two whole weeks to see his cute little face in person. She planned on coming out the 17th of August, Dad would come the next day, and Eric a few days later.  Well, Eric cancelled (missed ya, bro!) so we figured would would just bless the baby at church on August 21st.  

Then, to our horror, we found out that Michael's parents had bought tickets to go visit for their other grandbaby's blessing in Utah, and planned to leave on August 18th. So they wouldn't be there that Sunday.  And they wouldn't be back until my dad was gone for two days.  So our parents would never all be in town the same day.

How do you pick which family gets to see the blessing?  You don't.  It's horrible.  I got sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

So, after a lot of discussion, we decided to get everyone's flight itineraries and see if there was any possible overlap between grandparent arrivals/departures on the 18th.

And there was! For sixty whole minutes, everyone would be in town.

So we called the airport and reserved a conference room.  Our dear family friend Matt Highwood agreed to come be the bishopric representative.  An inspired Granny put the sweet little blessing outfit she made for Zane in the front pocket of her carry-on at the last minute (and good thing, since her checked luggage was lost!) As soon as Papa Gary arrived, we gathered all the beloved grandparents there in the Evansville Municipal Airport conference room. There in a bare conference room, surrounded by scattered luggage, two loving grandfathers gently held little Zane Ephraim in their hands, his father gave him a name and a blessing. Never has such a room felt so holy.  Never has a little boy been so cherished.  We are so grateful that the Lord opened up a way for our family to be together that day.

Little Zane in his "blessing sack" that his Granny Zo'An sewed for him.

Here you can see some of the detail of the gorgeous embroidery on his outfit.  I wish you could see better how on the bottom part of the outfit there is a horse's head embroidered, with its mane flying in the wind.  Really beautiful.  Mom wanted to capture some of his Montana heritage, and she did a remarkable job.