Blessed Day !

Oh yeah ... and it's Mother's Day too.

Today, Elaina was baptized !

This is the day I had been looking forward to. Our little angel has been blessed into the Catholic religion with all of our family to join in our celebration. After the night we had last evening, I was fearful that this day wouldn't turn out exactly as I had planned. Most of the evening, Eric had complained that he wasn't feeling well. Just as we were going to bed, he said that he was freezing cold and was shivering. Eric hardly ever complains and he is never cold. Hmm... sound like the flu ? NO NO NO ! This couldn't be happening ! When Ava was baptized in the NICU, Eric and my mom both came down with the flu on the same day (3 hours away from each other) which left only me, my dad and one of our favorite nurses to witness her baptism. This day was going to be the best ever - we had family and friends joining us, we had a nice lunch planned and we had everyone at the 11:00 Mass who would rather not see Eric yack during the service.

Maybe a good night's sleep is all he needed. He woke up feeling fine and I woke up knowing that God had heard my prayers for sure ! During the introduction of the Mass, Fr. Ring announced that Elaina Rose was present this day to receive the gift of baptism into the Catholic church. Elaina must have been paying attention because, as she was standing on my lap, she began clapping her hands just after he spoke her name. Oh ... I melted ! I saw the admiring smiles of the people around us and I thought to myself, " Yeah, that's my girl ! "

Her baptism went very smoothly as the priest poured holy water atop her head and annointed her chest with oil. My brother and sister-in-law , Greg and Kate, have proudly claimed the role as her Godparents. Like so many, they recognize what a special baby we have been entrusted to care for and love. We all feel that Elaina has been a beautiful blessing for all of our family to enjoy. Just the way it was meant to be.

What made the day even better was that so many of our family and friends were able to join us for this celebration. Their presence was enough to satisfy me, yet they brought her the most beautiful gifts also. Since Elaina has grown to love books, she received many books and special keepsakes to commemorate this blessed event. We'll always treasure the memories of this beautiful day.

* My only regret of the entire day was that my poor child only had about a 20 minute nap all of the day until nearly 3:00 ! She was very social and couldn't miss a minute of her party. The only time she became fussy was when we tried to get some family and group pictures with our little Precious.