Alexia's baptism

The past 5 days have been simply wonderful. My mom (Grammie), Ricardo's mom (Mima), and my godmother (Brownie) all arrived on Thursday and just departed late this afternoon. The purpose of their visit was for Alexia's baptism, but we had a really special time, every day of their visit. On Friday we spent most of the day hanging out at the apartment and we took two trips to see the house that we are buying. In the evening we took them to our favorite Mexican restaurant and we had a really fun time. All 7 of us squeezed into a booth so we were quite cozy :)
On Saturday morning we went to the Botanical Gardens which was beautiful. I have been wanting to take my mom and godmother there for ages and am so glad we had the chance to all go together. Diego enjoyed running around and seeing all of the plants, flowers and sculptures.
It was terribly warm so Alexia was not thrilled and we didn't stay for too long. We picked up lunch on the way home and had a lovely time at home hanging out, talking, playing and being thoroughly entertained by the children.
Ricardo, his mom and Diego went to the grocery store around 5pm while my mom, Brownie and I stayed home to start the cooking marathon for Sunday. We prepared lunch for 16 adults and 6 children. We invited neighbors from our apartments and friends that don't go to our church over for lunch after the baptism. We had a wonderful time and Diego loved having so many friends in the apartment. Our sweet baby girl slept through most the party, but that allowed us to enjoy our company so it was fine.
Sunday was a very special day. Several friends who don't attend our church came to the baptism as well Ricardo's very oldest friend from childhood who lives in El Salvador. He was in Atlanta for a layover and we were thrilled to have him with us. Alexia wore a gorgeous dress that my godmother bought for her in Venice - she looked like a princess. My godmother also brought her diamond earrings and my mom brought her a gold necklace with a locket (the same necklace that I wore at my baptism) so she was a fancy baby! She did pretty well during the baptism, but started crying near the end of it so Pastor Paul didn't walk down the aisle to introduce her to the congregation like he usually does. It was a really touching day for us. The Presbyterian church does not believe that baptism cleanses a baby of her sin. We baptize our children as a commitment that we, as Alexia's parents vow to raise her in a Christian home and that we will follow the ways of the Lord in our parenting.

"For I have chosen him in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord." (Gen. 18:19)

I uploaded a few pictures and realized there were a lot more so at the end of the post you will see a link to view all of the pictures on a separate page.


Pastor Paul is explaining what baptism means for our family. Diego did really well being up on stage, although in this picture he was distracted by the choir members.


Paul said "Alexia Marie, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" in spanish and in english which was really special for our family.


This is the spread of delicacies that we had for lunch. Notice the watermelon, carved as a whale. And the ladybug with the flowers in it is our very first housewarming gift from Ricardo's mom.


Mima had a broken ankle so was on crutches and in a wheelchair all weekend. Diego took very good care of her!


We were pointing at the tadpoles - he was amazed!

Click here to see more pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=137534&l=25cc4&id=678120522