Big Bear gets Baptized

Last Sunday we baptized Owen at our church.  We found our church about a month and a half before he made his debut into to the world and we've tried to go as much as possible since he was born.  Our pastor even came to see us at the hospital to pray over Owen.  Due to some last minute snafus, the associate pastor and one of the regional leaders of the Presbyterian church did the baptism for us.  We love Kelly, the associate, so it ended up being great to have her involved.

Normally, since O was about 2 months old, we drop him in the nursery since he is generally too noisy and squirmy to sit there for the hour.  If we take him in, one of us ends up leaving or we end up not being able to concentrate on the service.  For this reason, I had a ton of anxiety leading up to the baptism and having him in church for the entire hour.  Plus, a four month old is kind of a loose cannon. You never know what you'll end up with!

Adam and I took him up for his baptism right after the Children's Sermon with his godmother, my cousin Allison.  The baptism was longer than our wedding, I swear!  We might have only been up there for 5 minutes or so but it felt like 2 eternities.  Luckily, Owen was in a good mood and he had just been fed, although right before we went up, it seemed like he was starting to get fussy.  I was so nervous.  Kelly read a bunch about the sacrament of baptism and Adam and I answered some questions on behalf of Owen about our faith and raising him as a child of God.  They did a prayer, and then Tom, the minister from the Presbytery, did the actual baptism.  He put a TON of water on Owen's head.  The faces he made were priceless but we think he might have just thought it was bath time so other than a little bit of shock, he wasn't mad at all.  Tom took Owen and walked him down the aisle to see the congregation and I heard he was very smiley and charmed all the ladies in church.

Kelly did the sermon and it was wonderful, she tied O's baptism into it a couple of times.  We had 4 rows of family and friends come to celebrate with us and had a big party at our house afterward.  Other than Owen being fast asleep in all of the pictures we took at the church, it was a perfect day.  We chose September 15th because it would have been my grandmother's 81st birthday.  It was a great way to celebrate her and Owen.

My sweet friend Kate took this video of the big event.