My Niece's Baby Blessing

In my church, when babies are born, there is a special priesthood ordinance called a baby blessing.
During sacrament meeting, the dad usually gets up in front of the congregation and says a special prayer for the baby.

This past Sunday, my new niece had her baby blessing at church.  (Followed by a family gathering at the parents house.)

This was a day of mixed emotions.  I had found out I miscarried on Wednesday, and the baby blessing was that Sunday.  This is such a special little girl, and there was no way I wasn't going to go to her baby blessing.  I have a lot of nephews in my family, but not very many nieces.

I was fine getting ready that morning.  I was fine walking into church.  I even ran into an old friend named Geoff, who was greeting people as they walked into the church building.  I hadn't seen him in years!  We served together on the Activities Committee of my singles ward.  We were the co-chairs in charge of all the monthly activities.  It was fun running into him again.  He told my hubby I was one of his favorite people, and that made me feel good.

We got there just as church was starting.  And I was okay for probably the first 10 minutes.  And then I was increasingly NOT okay.  I started crying after the opening hymn.  I wanted to leave.  It was too soon.  My hubby was sitting next to me, and asked if I was okay.  I shook my head no.  He asked if I wanted to leave.  I shrugged my shoulders.  I was so choked up I couldn't even talk.  He put his arm around me.  

There was no way to quietly slip out of the meeting.  I was in the middle of the pew, so I would have to climb over everyone in order to leave.  I knew it would make a scene if I left in the middle of the church service.  So I leaned forward, so people wouldn't be able to tell I was having a hard time.  And I just prayed and prayed that Heavenly Father would help me get through this.  It didn't happen right away.  But somewhere between the sacrament song and prayers, my emotions were calmed.  And everything was okay for the moment.  I was able to focus on what I had, and not what I was missing.

 My prayer was answered.  I've heard a quote from John H. Groberg that said "Sometimes God calms the storm, and sometimes he calms his child."  This time he calmed me.