Tonito's Baptism

We decided to baptize Tonito at my parent's church (and the coincidence is that he was born on our anniversary and was baptized 5 days after our 8th anniversary in the same church where we were married).

We chose Tonio's sister, Normita, to be his godmother and my brother, Nico, to be his godfather.

I think they will be the perfect godparents because Normita is a wonderful, nurturing mom to her son, and Nico will be such a positive role model for Tonito to look up to.

We went out to brunch at the Spanish tapas restaurant where we had our wedding shower- the food is so fresh and delicious you should really fast a couple of days before eating there so you can enjoy the buffet to its fullest! Yum, I love Spanish food!!! After brunch we rolled over to the church- Tonito's baptism ceremony was beautiful. The priest likes to give a little history lesson during the service so even though he is our 3rd child to be baptized, we actually learned a lot! For example- the Greeks and Romans baptized with olive oil because it was tradition to oil up wrestlers before a match so it was more difficult for their opponents to grab them. They annointed the people with oil in the same way, so it would be more difficult for Satan to grab the baptized. Anyway, really nice service:).

Here are some pictures from the breakfast:

Here is the baptism ceremony:

During the ceremony, the parents of each child came up and offered a prayer of thanksgiving/blessing. This is the prayer that we wrote:

Giver of Life,

Four years ago you brought Tonito into the world.

You watched over Tonito as his birthmom made the difficult decision to ask others to take care of him because she could not.

We keep his birthmom in our prayers, and ask you to also bless his foster mom, who nurtured and cared for him for the past 3 1/2 years.

God of Love,

Working in mysterious ways, you crossed our paths and our spirits met.

We are so thankful to be his parents,

And are forever grateful you have blessed us with our wonderful and supportive families.

Please bless all of our children, Tonito, Viviana and Maya,

and make us instruments of your love and will,

to guide them through life in your footsteps,

so they can use their godgiven talents to achieve greatness and happiness.

We pray that your loving spirit will forever be a guest in our family and in our home.

Amen.