Baptized Buddies

Michael and Sophie were baptized yesterday.

When we returned to my parents' house for a luncheon, I fed the babies, and they fell into their milk coma pose, made even sweeter by their white attire.

(They're on their EZ 2 Nurse pillow on either side of my waist.)

Like I did before getting married in a Catholic church, I did some soul-searching before the baptism.  I was raised Catholic, but I don't really identify with the religion beyond that.  I know it's not uncommon for people like myself to participate partially in a religion, but I was raised to see that as inappropriate.  For a long time I felt it was best for me to let go of my connection to my family's religion completely, but starting my own family has made me question that total separation.

The conclusion I've come to is that the line between faith and culture is a little blurry when it comes to religion.  Although Mike and I don't really practice any religion, we'd like to share some aspects of Catholicism with Sophie and Michael since it is a part of their family's culture.  Getting married in a church and having the babies baptized were not givens for us, and where we go from here is something we'll continue to feel our way through, hoping our openly one foot in/one foot out approach isn't terribly offensive to the truly faithful.

I've spent time with both my mom and my mother-in-law since the babies were born discussing our beliefs, and I feel they fully respect my appreciation for my religious upbringing and what my spirituality looks like today (there's certainly more to it than what I'm sharing here).  Mike and I chose our moms as the babies' godmothers - my mom for Sophie, Gail for Michael - since they will naturally model the faith for the babies.  We were pleased to learn that Gail's Grammie was her godmother as well.  My brother Joe is Sophie's godfather and Jeff (Mike's best friend since childhood) is Michael's.  We know these two guys love our babies deeply, they know our values well, and they will always be part of Sophie and Michael's lives.  Our babies are lucky to have these four people as their godparents. 

Although Mike woke up with a miserable summer cold yesterday, we enjoyed the ceremony and the gathering with family and my mom's church friends afterwards. My aunts Rose and Janet came down from Marysville, and my Aunt Sharon and cousin Gary drove in from Pennsylvania. Aunt Sharon mentioned that it was hard for her to imagine my mom as a grandmother, my brother as an uncle, me as a mom and so on. Gary called it the changing of the guard. These gatherings help us all to see the joy and changes that Sophie and Michael have brought to our family. I found myself really looking forward to the holidays!

I keep finding myself too preoccupied with the babies to get many pictures at events like this, but here are a few I did manage to get.