Baptism

I'm a Godmother!

In Armenian, it's gunk-a-ma-yer, (Gunkamayr) which just sounds unexciting and maybe a little gross (gunk), but it was actually quite fun. My camera is currently misplaced somewhere in the home, so I'll update from mom's computer while I have time. The fact that our cat is sitting next to me is added incentive. I love my Ollie!

After a GREAT day Friday, I drove to Columbus (free wifi--BOOM) and flew home. I arrived at midnight.

This morning, mom, Mareeg, Aunty Carol and I decorated for the post-baptism festivities.

Here below is my first ever meeting with Aileen. This is right after she was born

This is a photo of her from the past week, nearly 6 months old, with a cousin-aunt.

Here I am pre-baptism. It was really fun! These are two of six great-grandparents that Aileen is blessed enough to have!

Here is Aileen today, post-baptism. She didn't cry ONCE, and was a totally different baby from the last three weeks (her teeth cut through). She was sooooooo smiley and not at ALL fussy. And she really enjoyed her time in the baptismal font. We don't have many photos of that, though. One of my brother's friends photographed it (for her portfolio) so we should have those piccies soon. My brother-in-law was 

Can't figure out how to rotate this, but this is from Father's day. It's just cute!

Baptism isn't the end-all be-all in the Orthodox church: it's just a start, and a commitment by the family/community to raise the child in Christ's name and dedicated to his service. It's a prayer for blessings and a welcoming into the body of Christ (since we also do chrismation and communion then, too). We believe in judgement at the end of time/life, so at some point each individual does have to take their spiritual journey into his or her own hands and make faith personal and live out the Bible's teachings. It's a beautiful start to life, though, and it does have a scriptural/historical basis (as do other practices. I'm not saying ours is better, just a different, and sound, interpretation). For all my light heartedness and candor, that commitment (made today) is something that I take seriously, and I certainly hope to help Aileen blossom into a fun, unique, and faithful servant of God.