Mabel was Baptized on Saturday with only our immediate family, her godmother, Elizabeth, and daughters, and my sister and nephew present. It was a really lovely Baptism and thankfully our priest, one of nine children himself, didn’t get bent out of shape by Silas and Job demonstrating their best “new baby in the family” wild behavior. He did say to me, “I see why you asked for a private Baptism.” Ha! Yes! Thankfully there was only one minor head injury (Job–always!)
Fr. H requested a helper from amongst my older sons at the beginning of the service, and Gabe volunteered. I don’t think that I fully recognized until I got home and looked at the photos, that Gabe even helped with the actual Baptism. You can see in the photos that Elizabeth is smiling up at Gabe, totally understanding what is happening: that he is pouring the water with Fr. H. I was standing just behind her, watching Mae. It’s always fun to see how the baby reacts. She simply gave a huge yawn, stretched, and went back to sleep. It will always be precious to me that Gabe helped to Baptize her. And I suspect it will be a lasting memory for him as well. We all got a good laugh when Fr. H suggested the priesthood to Gabe, mentioning that there hasn’t yet been an American pope. You know, no pressure or anything. Gabe’s response, with a big smile, “No thank you!” For now, he’s sticking with baseball.
Many, many thanks to my sister, Abby, and Mary Beth Foss for taking photos of this special day.
Welcome to the Church, Sarah Mabel Elizabeth!
(Naughty boys!! And the looks on everyone’s faces. This is just so priceless.)
(He moved so quickly, we didn’t realize until he was proudly seated that he had headed up there….)
It’s all beautiful, Ginny. So lovely Gabe participated in the baptism. Wonderful memories for all of you.
🙂 When seeing the pictures, I assumed Gabe must be Mabels Godfather …
Thank you Ginny, for sharing this precious moment and all the others with us !
These photos are priceless! Welcome to the family Mabel! I loved the way Gabe helped….yes, special memories indeed.
Praise God !! Another sheep in the fold. Happy Baptism sweet Mae!
What beautiful pictures. Perhaps your younger son is destined to be the “American Pope”. 🙂
Thank You for sharing your family’s happy event. You have a beautiful family. As for Silas and Job “Boys will be Boys”
God Bless
Marion and family
Silas and Job – you two make me smile 🙂 They are such energetic, happy, healthy boys.
I’m so touched by the gentle, loving expressions on the faces of your children when they are around Mabel. I know you must have some trying, rough moments but the love shines through on everyone’s face. Lucky Mabel to be surrounded by love.
How wonderful it would be if all children were born into loving homes.
Marilyn (in Dallas)
Cute pictures! What a special day for you. Congratulations!
Oh, how this post made me laugh. I have three children under the age of four, my youngest being 8 weeks. We had a naming ceremony for our youngest at our synagogue and it seemed to go just as well as your baptism, with kids crying and running amok. It ended with our infant projectile vomiting all over my husband right as the rabbi said the final prayer…such is life. Mazel Tov to you and your family.
So beautiful what a lovely family and what lovely memories you always make with your beautiful photos.
Many blessings to all of your family.
My favorite picture is of the boys and your faces. As a mom of all boys…I TOTALLY appreciate it!!!! God Bless. Such a beautiful family!
???. Congratulations Family ???. God Bless Each of you✝
Photos were amazing ?
So precious. So meaningful. Pictures so gorgeous. Welcome to the family of believers, Mae.
Lovely and touching in too many ways to count! Congratulations to you, your family and godmother! And I must tell you, I love your baby’s name!
What a beautiful baptism! May God bless you & your family!
Photos are fabulous and tell the story so very well! I felt like I was right there with you. God bless all of you!!
From Wales, UK. Thank you so much for sharing with us such precious family moments. Many blessings over you all in these wonderful days.
So many sweet moments in your photos, thanks for sharing this special event. Makes a grandmother’s heart sing.
For fairly new readers of your blog – can you tell us how Gabe came to be in your family? He seems like such a wonderful boy.
We adopted him 7 1/2 years ago. He IS wonderful. Truly, he’s one of the most remarkable human beings I’ve ever known. Can’t imagine our lives without him!!!
I’ll add, Ginny really does have a wonderful archive and if you look in the side bar under “adoption” she’s kept the the story very real.. if you are considering adoption or know someone who is, it’s a great “tag” to read through! 🙂
So sweet! Such a lovely family! 🙂
what an awesome baptism and a lovely family.
Beautiful pictures and such a precious and memorable day! Blessings on your family and sweet Mabel!
So very lovely. Such a beautiful event. I must say though that the picture of the two toddlers trying to escape and everyone else’s consternation makes me smile.
Such a special day for a beautiful family. Welcome to the Church, Mabel, and may God continue to bless all of you. 🙂
She is just so very precious :o)
This might be one of my top favorite posts of yours. Every image is so real and tangible, I feel like I was there. Maybe it’s because I’ve had toddlers at baptisms several times;). I absolutely love everything about it.
Thank you for including us! This is so very beautiful!!!!!
Welcome, sweet Mae! I love how Fr. H’s peaked prayer hands in front of his chasuble seem to spell out DAD. 🙂
Love! What a beautiful day. I love baptisms!
Oh my goodness, those boys! Real life; it’s beautiful.
such precious photos and thank you for keeping it real with them:) those boys made me smile. we had our 6th baptised with 5 other babies on the day (mostly 1st or 2nd babies in their families) and two of mine were on the floor in the aisle for most of it. Acting like they’ve never stepped inside a church before:) Baptisms are so special and full of joy xx
You guys have beautiful babies and a beautiful family! God grant Mabel many years!
So beautiful and such joy–It brings tears to my eyes. Welcome to God’s family Mae and blessings to you all.
Father Holmes is just the BEST!! He was at SMOS for three years and he is such a wonderful priest. Really does go with the flow. Mae looks beautiful and Gabe will never forget the privilege Father allowed for him. What an awesome day my friend. <3
Beautiful! I love seeing you and Elizabeth in these photos. Two of my favorite people!
And sweet sweet Mabel! <3 <3
Thank you for sharing. Love, love, love this. Your honesty is wonderful. Thank you for including all the pics.
So that pic of Johnny wrestling with the boys (one for each hand/arm) while everyone else poses. Perfect. I have a pic from William’s baptism of Joseph standing under the altar (there were 8 infants being baptized and Father invited everyone onto the altar) with William’s Godmother’s daughter and they are pointing to the carving of the Apostles under the Tabernacle. The funniest thing is that now Joseph would cringe if he saw a child do that!
Welcome to the church Baby Mae! My new granddaughter was baptized on Saturday as well. She wore the gown that her mother and I both wore before her. It was purchased by my godmother from a children’s shop on Canal Street in New Orleans. The next day someone suggested embroidering the names and baptismal dates of the babies who wore it on the under slip. I will add that to my growing list of projects.
What a joy it was to see my youngest daughter becoming Godmother to my oldest daughter’s child (who, as a toddler, behaved rather badly at her just younger sister’s baptism). And what a blessing it was that all of the baby’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins (even her mother’s Godfather) were there. This baptism was at Mass, and I did feel badly that a lot of people’s regular seats were usurped by our tribe.
As always, beautiful photographs of a beautiful family.
What a beautiful Baptism! Congratulations Sarah Mabel Elizabeth!
Aww what a wonderful brood you have – congratulations.
Many years! to Dear Mabel. Congratulations, all!
Such beautiful pictures, they tell a story of a family so close, so united, so real, so loving and beloved of God. You mentioned Mae’s Godmother but who is her Godfather? I remember when my daughter (now 45) was baptized – her Godfather was one of the Pope’s secretaries and had been called back early from his vacation, to the Vatican – we had her Godmother’s husband hold her and stand in his stead at the font.
She only has a godmother. I had hoped that our oldest son (and only child who has received confirmation yet) would be her godfather, but he didn’t want to. I left that spot open in case he changed his mind last minute, but he didn’t. He just wasn’t super comfortable with what I guess he perceived as the responsibility of the role, and he also isn’t comfortable with babies, and I think that played a part.
Oh Ginny. Your words and photos of Mae’s baptism made me cry. What a beautiful moment! And Gabe – wow!!! What a blessing <3
Just beautiful! These pictures brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing them and thank you for forming your children in the faith. If Gabe isn’t up for the priesthood, maybe the little one parked up on the altar chair…. He looks pretty comfortable up there!
God bless you and your family.
Sincerely,
Dana Laviano
Lovely and thank YOU for posting the honest photos (those last two are priceless) as well as the precious. Having 4 boys and then a little girl, I appreciate the “joys” of crowd management. When we only see the picture perfect we start to see our own children’s head injuries as a sign our family is less than amazing so it’s good to remember that no one is.
Such a wonderful celebration, lots of amazing memories to treasure. God bless.
GREAT pics!!!!! What a wonderful baptism!!!! I’ve been to a fr. H baptism???? so cool !!
The photographer from this house got very wide eyes when I began with, “So, Lori will be out of town and of course Ginny can’t take pictures, would you…” Such huge shoes to fill. She didn’t even try:-). But she got some good shots of good memories. We missed you!
Mary Beth did an outstanding job! You have such creative children, Elizabeth! And the shots she got of you are beautiful!
And that part where Gabe poured the water? That’s when I was blinking back tears. Such a beautiful moment. …
Beautiful! Marvelous blessings abound 🙂 What a special day, it shines through in every photo. My teens and I so enjoyed the peek into your family album.
How very beautiful! God bless you all! 🙂