Levi's Dedication

On Nov. 23rd we dedicated Levi to the Lord at Rockway Church. We are so blessed to be a part of a church family who is so wonderful and loving. When we started attending Rockway, Mackenzi was just over 1 years old. At the time, we were driving to Wylie every week to attend Brian's dad's church. We were tired of traveling each week and thought we'd like to attend a church locally; only we weren't sure if we'd feel comfortable putting Mackenzi in the nursery of a church we didn't know. So, we talked to our neighbors and began attending with them when we stayed in town for Sunday. It didn't take long for us to fall in love with Rockway Church. I believe we attended for about 6 or 8 months (I'd have to check with Brian) before we joined. It was a glorious morning the day we joined, and is one I'll never forget. Brian went to get Mackenzi out of the nursery as the service was ending, and we walked together as a family into the arms of Jonathan (he was the children's minister). He welcomed us, prayed with us, and we knew it was God's will for us to be at Rockway.


As with many churches, Rockway experienced some changes. We hadn't fully involved ourselves, for whatever reason. We were attending hometeams, had taught VBS one summer, but we just really only knew a handful of people. Then we began seeing some of those people leave the church. Brian kept asking me why? And I didn't have that answer, but what we both concluded with those conversations was that God was not telling us to leave Rockway. He was telling us to stay.


One Sunday morning, I remember seeing this young couple. They were shaking hands with people, introducing themselves, and just seemed very comfortable. I remember wondering if I had seen them before, but realized I hadn't. Several months later, in February of 2007 we met this young couple, Kyle and Jessica Walker. It was at a Superbowl party - also a kickoff to Hometeams. I remember the compassion in Kyle's eyes as Brian shared with him that we had one daughter, Mackenzi, and that we had recently miscarried our second baby. Soon after this Super Bowl party, Kyle was named our Community Pastor. We got to know him and others in our church through Kyle's organizing of our Home Teams. He was dedicated, devoted, and truly wanted us to "live life together." In April of 2007, Brian's brother, Phillip, endured brain surgery for a tumor the size of a lemon. Kyle came walking through the doors of the waiting room; he prayed with us, and just began living life together.


In October of 2007, I became pregnant for the third time. Within a time span of 30 minutes, I experienced complete elation of being pregnant, and also fear of what was to come. Would I be able to carry this baby? Would he/she be o.k.? These were fears I could not overcome. As we shared with our friends at church of our pregnancy, they were excited for us. They had been praying with us to become pregnant and knew of our desire for another baby. I feared another miscarriage, but also felt that it was important for me to involve as many as possible so we could be praying against Satan! Rockway church prayed for us, and with us. Again, living life together.

Rockway became an extention of our family as they prayed week after week with us as the little life inside of me grew. When I was 20 weeks pregnant, I had an appointment for a sonogram to find out if the baby was a boy or girl. That particular day we also had planned for hometeams. I forget the details surrounding the situation, but for some reason we couldn't have hometeams at our usual location; and so Brian and I offered our house to meet. I remember fearing that I might not get good news, and couldn't fathom having all those people in our house. But, as you already know the story, we found out the baby was a boy. Keith Wiginton, our pastor at the time, came into our house that evening and was so elated for us. His exact words were, "That's awesome, God is Good!" And the rest of our friends celebrated with us that evening as well.


Rockway literally carried me especially because through my pregnancy with Levi I wavered so many times allowing fear to control me. My Ladies Bible study was so monumental in praying with me - both in our trials of attempting to get pregnant, and throughout my pregnancy. Sunday mornings were filled with people asking me how I was doing, how my pregnancy was going, and did I know I was in their prayers. I received emails and phone calls encouraging me to trust that everything would be o.k. Living life together.


The birth of our son, Levi, on June 27, 2008 was one of the best days of my life. God had blessed us with this precious little boy - ten fingers, ten toes, a beautiful, perfect little boy. And over the course of the next couple of weeks following his birth, we were inundated with meals and visits from our family at Rockway. Prior to his birth they showered us with gifts, blessings and plenty of diapers. Living life together.


On Nov. 23, 2008, it was an honor and a blessing to present to Rockway Church our little bundle - Levi Ashton Kreymer. While we miss Keith and his family (who have moved to OK), we are blessed to have Kyle as our Senior Pastor. It was such a joy to have him perform Levi's dedication. A very special morning as we had our family there, and also our church family. All agreeing to support us as we seek to raise Levi (and Mackenzi) according to God's will. We are truly blessed to be a part of such a wonderful church family. (on a side note, we are thrilled to be waiting the arrival of Hudson Walker - Kyle and Jessica's firstborn son due in March 2009. Like us, they've experienced a difficult time with pregnancies.)


I am usually very diligent about getting pictures on such special occasions, but for some crazy reason, I didn't do very well this day. This third picture is of us with Kyle. Brian's parents, my parents, my nephew, Tony and his mom, and Kenzi's soccer coach, Sarah and her two kids were here this day to celebrate with us in addition to our friends at Rockway. I'm sorry I don't have them reflected in the pictures.