Savannah's Baptism

Savannah has conquered a rough dose of jet lag.  She finally seems to be back to a relatively normal sleep schedule (for a teething 7 month old).  I finally got more than 4 hours of sleep in-a-row, meaning, I feel super human!  Feeling well rested is a relative notion.  Pre-baby, I would've said 8 hours is a good  night of sleep.  These days, a full 5 hours means I feel like I have super powers the next morning.

Anyway, these means I'm up at 5am updating blog posts, watching the sun roll up over Abu Dhabi and feeling an overall sense of "Ahhhhhhh" (that's a good "Ahhh" as opposed to a screaming "Ahhh").

Let's get the July recap started I promised in the last post with the biggest event - Savannah's baptism!

It was a little tough planning and coordinating with the church, her godparents, the dinner venue and all the fixings surrounding it from 8,000 miles, but all turned out well in the end.
Perhaps the one glitch is photography.  Most of the pictures turned out pretty blurry...sad, sad.
My fabulous niece was put in charge of photos at the last moment as I was unable to find a photographer available for the day.  Try as she might, she just couldn't get a hang of the camera.  I didn't discover this until the next day, when I was reviewing the photos.
Lesson learned! Book photographer FIRST for all major events.  Oh well, still, the event was the stuff of memories and everyone seemed to have a good time and that's what counts.

First, a note on her godparents...they are super nice and both hubs and I are so honored that they agreed to be a part of Savannah's life.  They have 3 amazing daughters they're doing an incredible job raising.  When it came time for us to select godparents for Savannah, we really wanted someone who had experience raising a girl, someone who we felt had common beliefs and a common view on the world.  As we scanned around, it was almost a no-brainer for me...Savannah's godparents have 3 incredible daughters, they're a very close-knit family and they seem to just genuinely enjoy each others company---even while 2 of their daughters are full fledged teenagers :-).  Her godfather was someone both hubs and I had regularly come to for advice on all sorts of things in the past and we realized it's because we really trusted and valued his opinion.  We wanted her to have that from her godparents - wisdom.
It's really just too bad that we're so far away from them right now, but we can't wait to be around them on a regular basis, especially as soon as Savannah starts being able to talk.  We want them to have a close bond and can't wait to see them interact and be a part of her life on a regular basis!

It's all about a good support system right?

The baptism ceremony itself was a blur, no pun intended.  It went by so quickly!  There were a total of 11 babies receiving the sacrament on the same day!  Our home church (since we live abroad, we attend a parish in Abu Dhabi, but we really call the one in The Woodlands our home) did a great job keeping everything coordinated.  Savannah had a great turn-out from family and friends supporting her on her big day.
It was truly a special event as we had the water from the River Jordan we flew to collect last month from Jordan!  She wore a special baptism gown we also purchased for her at the church located at Jesus' original baptism site - so very special!
Our deacon visited my parent's house a few days before to officially bless the water, thereby turning it holy, prayed over Savannah and blessed my parent's home.  It was so wonderful to see the water then be used during her baptism!
She received other blessings using various oils and when the time came for the holy water to be poured over her head, she didn't cry out.  I was so proud!  She wiggled around a little and tried to pull herself back up, but didn't cry.
She was one tired cookie by the end of the event and she eventually fell asleep in my arms during the candle lighting part of the ceremony.

Afterwards, it was time to party!  We hosted a dinner for all of Savannah's guests at a delicious cajun restaurant (partly to honor her godparents - who come from the great state of Louisiana).  We switched her over to a proper party dress, complete with a headband all blinged out with a crystal cross and feathers.
Everyone was pretty stuffed when they brought out dessert and then we announced it was time to cut her gorgeous cake!  Much credit to Sweets to Dream On of Conroe, Texas for her fabulous cake!  We will be ordering all our special event cakes from there once we move back!  I sent them a few Pinterest
ideas and her baptism invitation and they came back to me with great ideas and flavor combinations.  It was delicious and beautiful!  Savannah (without my permission) even got to try a taste!  Her godfather fed her a couple of bites from each tier while I was away helping serve cake.  She's already got a sweet tooth!

Her daddy gave an excellent speech.  He's such a good public speaker, I'm just not sure how he can just wing these things the way he does!  It was funny, sweet and heart-felt and let everyone know how grateful we were to see how many people loved Savannah and how proud he was of his baby girl.

It was a wonderful day for Wilson family history!

Here are some of my favorite (mostly blurry) pictures.