Maeve’s baptism.
Of course I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures of Maeve's baptism on hand yet.
We waited until Charlie returned home to baptize Maeve. Since he’s been home, we had a hard time deciding where we were going to baptize her. Charlie’s close family friend, Father Spychala, married us and has been a part of the Boyle family for years. Father Spychala lives in Virginia though, so we didn’t know if it was convenient to ask him to baptize Maeve.
Our other options were to baptize her here, on Camp Lejeune, where we attend the Catholic church. I’ve developed a relationship with the priest and felt comfortable with the option. The downside would be that no one from either of our families could attend, including Maeve’s godparents, Vince, her cousin, and her Aunt Rose.
Last weekend, Charlie’s sister asked me to be the godmother to her eighth child, Margaret Mary. Margaret Mary is only three weeks old and Liz already had arrangements for Father Spychala to baptize her the following weekend. Since I wanted to attend Margaret Mary’s baptism, we asked if Maeve could be baptized alongside her.
As we entered the church on Saturday for a private baptism, we saw Charlie’s brother, Dan, and his family in the parking lot. They were there for the celebration, but didn’t realize that their youngest, Gavin, would be baptized too.
Gavin had several severe heart complications when he was born and underwent surgeries to ensure his survival. Although Father Spychala administered an infant baptism before Gavin went into surgery, he formally completed the rite with his cousins by his side.
Is baptism important to you? At what age did you baptize your baby?
Hey Sarah! I am so happy you got to baptize Maeve with some of her family around, having family at the boys baptism was very important to us as well. We were going to baptize Junior when he was just a couple of months old in Virginia, since we wanted to baptize him young. But then we found out very soon after he was born that we were pregnant with Joshua, so we waited until Josh was born and baptized both of them together during our Christmas vacation to Miami. It was very special to have our family there to share such a special day with us.