Today was Jaden's first day of school! Scott and I were both really excited. The whole family brought him to school today. It was really good for Scott to be able to meet Jaden's teacher and see what the place is like.

After I dropped Jaden off, I went and got gas. It cost me $63 to fill up! Gas prices are just ridiculous right now. Then, Danielle and I went home and hung out for an hour before her nap. While she was napping, I was able to straighten up a bit, since I was supposed to be meeting with Marie Shephard to talk about starting a small group at 1:00. But, Danielle woke up from her nap screaming and covered in sweat. She kept crying and crying, no matter what I did - I finally called the doctor's office and made an appointment for her at 1:30. Because of this, I had to cancel my meeting with Marie.

Danielle cried, hard, for 45 minutes straight. I think her tummy must have been hurting her. We went to pick up Jaden, and when we got there, she started watching the kids at the park. Apparently, the distraction of the kids was what she needed because she suddenly stopped crying and was perfectly calm. By the time we drove home, she was happy and smiling. So, I cancelled the doctor's appointment. By this time, Marie had already scheduled something during the time that we were supposed to meet, so we weren't able to get together. We re-scheduled for September 13th. :-(

When I asked Jaden about his first day of school, he said that he played with T-Rex. Then he said "And I tried to take the other T-Rex from the boy." Oh goody! It's so nice to hear that his description of school involves trying to steal toys from other children. (Obviously, I'm being sarcastic here). He also said, "I wanted to use my crocodile scissors to cut paper." Boy, he really loved those crocodile scissors! But, he did seem to really love school. He didn't want to leave, but finally agreed when I told him we were coming back tomorrow.

In the evening, Scott and I went to a meeting at Jaden's school that talked about their beliefs as a church (since they will be teaching the children these things). It was very interesting. St. John's is part of a very conservative Lutheran group (WELS). Overall, we had no problems with their teachings - they take the Bible very literally, which is okay with me. They do not believe that women should have leadership roles in the church - not sure how I feel about that.

The one thing that I was most intrigued by was his explanation about why they believe in infant baptism. At Willow, they believe that infant baptism is not Biblically supported and so they don't do it. There is no case in the Bible that specifically shows an infant being baptized. We believe that baptism is a decision that you should make in order to show that you have accepted Jesus as your savior. St. John's, on the other hand, believes that baptism is a sacrament - meaning that it is something that God gives to us, not something that we do for God. They believe that during baptism, God gives they Holy Spirit - and, therefore, faith. So, they believe that this is the only way to "give" an infant faith, thereby ensuring that they will go to heaven should they die before they can come to faith themselves. I have some general issues with this - as they don't claim that baptism actually saves (the pastor pointed out that the theif who hung on the cross next to Jesus was saved and certainly wasn't baptized). Also, it's not as if the act of baptism is saving in itself - you couldn't baptize someone who wasn't a believer and save them that way. So, I don't quite understand how this would work for a baby or small child either - except that maybe their hearts are open to God, so he could bring grace to an infant through baptism. It's kind of intriguing - and I have to admit that the whole concept that perhaps our children might not go to heaven if they died right now has me a bit scared. It's tempting to have them baptized "just in case". I'm not sure what that would say about my faith, though. I think that this is definitely something that we will need to think and pray about further.