Anand's dedication ceremony

Though Anand is now over two years old, we had never actually had a dedication ceremony for him. This was primarily because we were always in a state of flux, moving between many places, and in search of a church we could be a part of. We also wanted to have people from both our 'families-of-origin' present as a part of this ceremony.

Just before Prem's wedding, we realised that we had a window of opportunity to have Anand dedicated. Arpita's mother was in Bangalore in order to visit Ashita and attend the wedding, and my family had come together as well.

And so, we grabbed the opportunity, and Anand was dedicated the day before Prem's wedding.

There were really three things we wanted to do.
1. We wanted this dedication to be a celebration of the fact that we have been adopted into God's family, and are now His children. We spent some time expressing our gratitude for the various benefits that have accrued to us because of this reality.

2. We knew that in addition to dedicating Anand, we wanted to dedicate ourselves. We wanted to express our prayer for grace to be good parents, in addition to expressing our prayers and desires for Anand.

3. We wanted every family represented that evening to be a part of the ceremony. We wanted to acknowledge that we were a part of a loving community that would bless and influence Anand in many ways.

And so we gathered together after dinner on Jan 1st. We were a small community of people who cared for Anand, and wanted to dedicate him to the Lord. After singing a song together, we went through this dedication that Arpita and I had written out together.

We want to thank each of you for your love and care for us as a family. Please do continue to pray for and with us, as we continue together on this exciting journey.