Eli's Baby Blessing

A couple of months ago, we traveled to California for Eli's baby blessing. We decided to do the blessing in California because it was too much for Peter's grandma, who is 93-years-old, to travel.

Initially, Peter was planning on blessing Eli in Chinese. After all, it only makes sense to do so in a Chinese branch, right? Especially considering that grandma doesn't speak English. However, after losing sleep over it for a week and my unsuccessful attempts in translating the blessing into Chinese for Peter, Peter decided to do it in English instead.

Both Peter and I were super nervous about the blessing because that would be Eli's first time going to Church and we had no clue whether he would behave or not. He's such an active kid and can't sit for very long. Peter was convinced that Eli would start screaming in the middle of the blessing. Thankfully, he didn't! However, he started getting restless after his blessing and I ended up staying

in the hallway with him for the rest of the sacrament meeting. I was somewhat bummed because Peter's grandma, Peter's dad, and Peter were invited by the branch presidency to bear their testimonies impromptu and I missed parts of it! (Lol, it turned out that the scheduled speakers didn't show up so the branch presidency got creative and asked our family to fill the program.) Peter's grandma and dad are so cute. Grandma spoke for a long time so dad passed her a note up the podium to ask her to wrap up.

Anyway, here's a summary of Peter's blessing for Eli:
1. living a service-oriented life
2. be an example to his future sibling
3. be a leader
4. live his life in such a way so that other people will be able to see Christ through him
5. love the gospel
6. honor his priesthood
7. be able to find a worthy eternal companion

Four generations of the Shens!

I happened to have training for work in San Jose that following week so Eli and I stayed while Peter returned the following Monday. When I was at work, my dear mother-in-law, who's a master in multitasking, watched Eli for me. I've been trying to convince my in-laws that they should buy a place next to ours ;)

This picture was taken at the linger-longer activity after Eli's blessing. Of course by this time, Eli was already exhausted and deep asleep!

My favorite picture of all that week!