It’s Baptism day and our happy little man in white is more than ready.
Raising our children in our faith is something that is especially important to George and I as parents. Whatever they choose as adults is their decision to make, and I will encourage them to explore and educate themselves as they continue on their faith journey. However, while they are still kids, I believe it is up to us as parents to provide the tools and to guide them as we raise them in our faith. What we desire the most is to give them the guidance they need in their early years, to help them decide how they want to lead their spiritual lives as adults.
Every night we pray for the safety, health, and protection of our family and loved ones. We pray in gratitude for all the gifts we are abundantly blessed with. And we pray for continued blessings over our kids – both earthside and otherwise. I want my little ones to understand why we do this. We believe that through our faith practices and commitment to family prayer, our children will be able to make their own educated decisions on how they want to live their lives in the future.
We encourage our children to be curious, and we anticipate some resistance and confusion over the course of their lives. God knows, I’ve had struggles in my own faith. More often than not. But as we now know, even those moments of doubt and question, like anything else in our lives, are all a part of growth in faith.
And that’s why we were so adamant we chose the right Godparents for our little guy. It wasn’t just about getting our closest friends and relatives to stand as witness. It’s the role of his Godparents to make a vow to continue to support their Godson in his faith journey. In them, he will find the guidance that is made purely of love and respect. From the moment of Baptism and throughout his life, he will always know who to turn to when it comes to questions of morality, following a benevolent way of life, being kind, and following in Christ’s footsteps of being selfless and loving towards others. And all four of our Godparents will do that for our little one, because we chose the very people who live their own lives in this way. And the same goes for all four of the Godparents we chose for our firstborn.
As Baptism is purification and admission to the Catholic Church, it’s our job to keep up with our commitment to attending mass either daily or weekly and to guide our little ones to exercise these practices. It’s not always easy. There are Sundays we just have too many errands to run, parties to attend, weeds to wack. How do we fit it all in as there is only a limited amount of hours in one weekend? First off, mass is an hour – one teeny tiny hour out of 168 hours in a week, to reflect on and to practice our faith. And when we go down our list of priorities, we look at mass the way we look at going to work or school. It’s part of our routine, an essential part of our lives and our spiritual health. Unless we’re busy giving birth in the hospital or in the middle of a tour of the Grand Canyon (and even then, it really is possible) we will find our way to church. We look at it as resetting for the week. A good place to breathe, meditate, listen to inspiring music, gain reminders and insightful words about forgiveness, loving thy neighbour as ourselves, and to be an overall good person.
Truth be told, I need these reminders and weekly doses might not actually be enough.
We love that our witnesses were both sets of grandparents, who were vehemently enthusiastic about us baptizing our little guy as soon as possible. It was quite the day for them as well.
The moment where the water was poured to symbolize the purification, and renewed life of our brand new little Catholic – was the most touching of all. It was a proud moment for all three of us. As the cleansing waters fell into the newly baptized eyes, not even one tear shed. I can’t exactly say the same for his mother, however…
It was a special day indeed. Our priest was very welcoming to our family and held him proudly as he processed outside of the church at the end of the ceremony. It meant the world to have the whole community witness such a significant moment in my son‘s life.
As a thank you to our guests and everyone who participated in this special day, I printed out and framed our favorite photo of our little guy in wings from our newborn shots taken by Sarah Booth Photography, along with a note of gratitude. They were a hit, and it was the easiest favor to put together as this little guy in wings keeps me too busy to come up with anything more creative.
And he wouldn’t be my son if he didn’t have a “costume” change. As much as he loved wearing the Baptism gown both his daddy and his big sister wore on their baptism day, he was more than eager to change to his oh-so-delicious outfit from our friends at Born to Love Clothing.
Dapper, from the top of his head…
…to the tips of his tiny little toes.
Following the Baptism, we hosted a dinner at a yummy restaurant, much like the one we got engaged in 9 years ago and similar to the one we went to for our celebration with big sis after her Baptism ceremony. Ideally, a Baptism would be followed by a big, elaborate party. Typically – that would be my cup of tea but in this case, we wanted to keep it intimate with Grandparents and Godparents so that we could spend quality time together and focus on why we were there in the first place. Sometimes, we get so caught up in coordinating linens and fancy themes, we forget who and what we’re actually celebrating. But for this handsome little dude‘s special day of Baptism – we relished in our time spent together as a family.
Our new party of four…
Abundantly blessed,
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DISCLOSURE: SASS & SMALLS WAS PROVIDED WITH APPAREL PRODUCTS AS A GIFT. ALL OPINIONS ARE OUR OWN. THIS POST CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS.
*Special thank you to @swanny80 and @I_am_Miss_Jen for the wonderful photos
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