Noah's Big Day

I hardly ever talk about religion on my blog.  It's not that it isn't important to me but religion to me is a very personal and private thing.

Now, don't worry - this isn't going to be one of those posts.

I was actually brought up Catholic in a somewhat religious household.  My husband was brought up Orthodox - a religion very similar to Catholicism.  We were married in an Orthodox church in Romania and Nathan was also baptized Orthodox.  Seeing as the Catholics recognize an Orthodox baptism we figured it would be pretty neutral until Nathan is old enough to make up his own mind about what religious path he wants to follow.

When it came time to think about baptizing Noah, I knew in my heart that I wanted to do it in the Catholic church, and I wanted to do it surrounded by my family.

Before he was even born we had chosen his godparents - my sister and my two amazing best friends in Atlanta {the closest things I have to brothers}.  The only thing missing was the actual baptism itself.

We had planned to do it in Arizona in December.  It seemed like the perfect time, but the church wanted to make it so difficult for us.  They wanted letters, certificates and so many other things that we were fighting an uphill battle.

My family found a great church where the priest was willing to work with our limitations since we were obviously living abroad, it was all set.  Then Noah got the chicken pox and the baptism had to be postponed - indefinitely.

I was heartbroken.

Noah recovered, and we found a priest that was willing to baptize him on a day's notice as a special favor to my family.

We asked my cousins to step in as godparents in addition to my sister, and we are so grateful they did on such short notice.

The ceremony was short but very personal.  Noah was such a champ through it all and adored the attention.

Since it was such short notice we had nothing prepared and so we ended up going to a local steak house to celebrate and then back to my aunt's house for cake and coffee.

It definitely was not how I had imagined the entire event, but it was perfect for us.  In the end I got everything I had hoped for, a baptized baby surrounded by family.  While I'm still sad that my friends from Atlanta couldn't make it - they are still the honorary god parents.

And how lucky is Noah, instead of 3 he has 5 people to be there and support him as he grows.  That is love!

Have you ever had an event not go as planned?