"Lord, to you we dedicate this child, Jackson Ray Konietzki"

Sunday, February 27th, was the day that we dedicated our son, Jackson, to the Lord! On the day that I found I was pregnant with this sweet boy I prayed and gave his life to the Lord, but it was the reminder that he isn't ours and that he does belong to the Lord that made yesterday very special and dear to my heart! Not to mention the fact that our families came to share this special time with us all. Our church does a good job of making it a very special time for each family and I just love the fact that our Pastor took Jackson in his arms and prayed over him- dedicating him to the Lord and giving him up to him! It blessed my heart to hear it and it was hard to maintain my composure as we walked off the stage with our son. In fact, I didn't maintain my composure about an hour later, when a man from a church- a man I had never met came up to Korey and I and said that the Lord had put it on his heart to pray for Jackson each and every day for the rest of his life! I don't know why God put that on this dear man's heart or what life has in store for my dear son, only God does- I just know that I am completely in awe, absolutely blessed and incredibly "overwhelmed" by it! Our Pastor shared this verse as our family's verse for Jackson, "Then I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with a whole heart!" Jeremiah 24:7 I pray that Korey and I will be able to show Jackson that the Lord is God and he is to be the ruler of his heart and I pray that God will give him a heart to know Him and a desire to worship him in all he does!

All in all, yesterday was a great day for me and our family. Hailey loved it because she had almost all of her favorite people at our house and only had to share the attention with Jackson and Jackson loved it because he was never at a loss for arms to hold him.

My only huge disappointment is that I have NO pictures of this special day. I'm so thankful that our church does tape it and give it to the family, because otherwise this whole special day may pass without Jackson even being able to see pictures of it! This, of course, tugs on the strings of my mommy heart, because Hailey had more pictures than I new how to deal with when it was her special day, but baby Jack doesn't even have one!

I'm so thankful that I had put him in his little outfit a few days before and taken a picture for my sister, who wasn't able to make it, because otherwise this cute little tie would never be seen by you all! :)

and, I'm thankful that Korey's Grandmother asked if we could take a 5 generation picture for her, because otherwise I'd have nothing to document the fact that Korey wore a tie...(for the second time since our wedding- and you may remember that that one only lasted until the ceremony was over!) ;)

"Thank you, dear Lord, for this beautiful baby boy. Thank you for giving us a heart to know you. Thank you for the promise that we are your people and that you are our God. Here is our son- take him and use him to do your will. And, please, dear Lord, give me the strength and the wisdom to raise him to be a man after your own heart! Don't let me get caught up in the day to day grind- let me always keep my heart and my mind focused on you and on glorifying and honoring you with all I do!"