Emilija's Baptism - September 6, 2009

I am so thrilled that Emilija is baptized. I had been MIA preparing for the big event. When you are coordinating from out of town, it takes more time than you think.

Emilija was baptized at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Carmel, Indiana. It's the parish that my family belongs to. It is also likely the parish that we will join when we move back and we're hoping that with a little help, we can get Eriks into the private school there as well.

The weather was not very cooperative that day. It rained in the morning. But I take it as being showered with blessings :-)
My sister, Edite is Emilija's godmother and my cousin, Robert (only 3 weeks to the day younger than me and like a brother) is Emi's godfather. We really couldn't have asked for better godparents for Emi. She is so very lucky to have both of them in her life. And I know they will be awesome guides in her life.

The drawback about baptisms, at least for us is that Emi's happened during her naptime so she cried the whole time. Eriks was during an earlier mass when he was baptized and he was 5 months old, not almost 19 months. From the anointing with oils to the actual pouring of water over her head, she was not a happy camper. Now that I think about it, crying is putting it mildly. She screamed out of pure exhaustion.

In the photo above you can see how unhappy she really was.

However, at her reception, it was a completely different story. This is probably one of my favorite photos of Emi yet. Her facial expression just makes me smile.
We had her reception at a banquet hall since we don't live there and because I couldn't expect my parents to host 50 people in their house. Ironically, we had Emi's reception at the same place we had Eriks.

The food was fabulous as always. Thank you to all those who came up to Lane and me and complimented profusely on how great the food and reception was.

In the above photo is my dad's side of the family. At least part of us. There were actually 14 or so family members missing. They just couldn't make it.

My mom's side of the family. Also there were about 14 or so of her family missing. I have big families on both my mom & dad's side.

Unfortunately, for some reason, no one grabbed my camera when we were taking photos of the Tuttle side and there were quite a few of them there as well. I'm hoping my in-laws will email me a good portion of the photos they took with their camera that I didn't take with mine because I was too busy entertaining guests and keeping track of my children.

After Emi's baptism, there were a fair number of us that went back to my parents house for more food, alcohol, conversation and gift opening. I think the party finally ended right around 10 pm or so.

Returning back to Georgia on Tuesday was not easy. As much as I really like my friends here, Indiana is home. Eriks has reminded me every day this week that he wants to go back to Indiana to be with his Omi & Opi (my parents).

I am still planning on ending this blog shortly and beginning a new one since our journey to Emi is over. I'm hoping in the next few weeks I'll have it up and running. Expect at least 1 or 2 more posts before I say goodbye to this blog. Still trying to figure out where I can get it turned into a book. If anyone has any info, please let me know!

It's also really hard to believe that Emi came home 2 months ago yesterday. It's amazing!