Tales from Mommy Merrill: June 1, 2013: A day to celebrate

On June 1, 2013 Drew Robert was baptized at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Tampa, FL. It was such a special day as we celebrated Drew becoming a child of God and recieving the gifts of eternal life and forgiveness of sins.

The ceremony was beautiful - it was held on Saturday morning (yes, it seemed very strange not having it on a Sunday), but our church conducts all infant baptisms on the first Saturday of every month. There were 4 other babies baptized during the same ceremony - but Deacon Jose made the ceremony very personal and it felt like we were the only family there!

Speaking of family, Wendy, Luke and Papa made the trip down to Tampa for Drew's special day! Here is a shot of the boys before the ceremony... resting up to be good little boys during church!

Jesus loves you, Drew and so do we!

During the ceremony they also did a very special blessing for the parents. Of course I teared up holding Ronnie's hand and thinking about all the amazing blessings I have received from God!

Wendy and Brad are the Godparents to Drew - what a lucky boy he is to have such wonderful Godparents to look after him!

Brad stayed home with cousin Ethan, so Alex Rodriguez (no, not the baseball player :) Ronnie's best friend stood in Brad's place.

Also at the ceremony were Grandma and Grandpa Merrill, Aunt Steph, Papa and Cousin Luke.

We got some great family photos at the altar - these were actually taken prior to the ceremony. You can also see that Drew is wearing a long white sweater gown. Ronnie's Grandma Merrill made this gown so we dressed Drew in it for the ceremony.

After the ceremony we headed back home for brunch. It's starting to really heat up down here - but we managed to take advantage of Florida living and sat outside on the lanai to eat.

It didn't take long until the little boys got roudy! :-)