Friday, May 23, 2014

7QT: Too Long with Too Many Photos



1) 
DK's Baptism.

On May 17th, Declan joined the Catholic Church!!  


Andrew served both the Mass and Baptism.  Always the philosopher, he asked on the day preceding the Baptism; "If Declan becomes a Child of God tomorrow, then what does that make him today?"



Phil's Dad, a Deacon, came up from Maryland to baptize his newest grandson.  It was awesome.

Deacon Gramps
Andrew kept slowly dropping the book lower and lower as poor Gramps was trying to read.  It's hard to be short, have tired arms, and be easily distracted by all your cousins and friends in the pews, dontchaknow?




Grandpa (my Dad) and Gramps

Gammy (my mom)


Unfortunately, Declan's godparents could not make it up from MD for the Baptism (totally St. Therese's fault, I'll explain later) so we had our "daughter" Haley and John-Paul stand in as godparent proxies, or as I liked to call them, Fairy Godparents.












2)
As soon as Declan was baptized, Phil and I consecrated him to Mary with this prayer.


We've done this consecration with all our babies, but with the middle name Kolbe, this one was a little extra special :)


DK with his parents and both sets of grandparents.

And one with the siblings as well!
3)
So, you may have noticed Declan's Baptism gown.  It's veeeeeeery long and beautiful, and has been worn by almost all of my parent's 21 grandchildren.  The gown was made from my mother's wedding dress, and the lady who made it designed it royal-style, so it's very long and we always feel like the baby is going to get lost in it.  The sentiment behind the gown is so special, and we love to put our babies (even the boys) in it.





4)
We were lucky enough to get permission from our pastor to have the Baptism party at the parish school.  So all 70ish (!!) of us went over for some yummy Italian food, a HUGE cake, music, and fun.


What would a party be without fake mustaches for all the kids to wear while dancing to YMCA?

Marijanna's little boy girl ;)
5)
So I alluded to the fact that Declan's godparents couldn't make it to the Baptism, and it was all St. Therese's fault.  

Watch out, her intercession is powerful!!
It all started back when I was pregnant with Declan and we were trying to plan his Baptism.  We thought it would be really nice to have him baptized at Easter, on April 20th, exactly 11 years to the day John-Paul was baptized (also on Easter).  We knew we wanted Phil's Dad to do the Baptism, and since both he and the godparents lived in MD, and Easter is a busy time for deacons, we decided to go down to MD to have the baby baptized.  After all, naive past Colleen thought, Declan was due 3/23, would obviously be born early, and we could travel down to Maryland with a one month old (or older) baby.  

The only hiccup in our plan was that going down to MD for Easter would mean Phil wouldn't be able to stand up as the confirmation sponsor for one of his students who had asked him.   So he told this student of our plans and she was a little disappointed, but said she would get a proxy for the Confirmation.  I ordered her a rosary bracelet with a medal of St. Therese on it, as her Confirmation name was Therese and thought nothing more of it.



As the due date came and went, and Declan was growing increasingly late, we decided to change our baptism plans and stay home so thy we wouldn't have to travel 8 hours with a what-should-have-been-one-month-old-but-would-now-be-a-stubborn-two-week-old.  So we changed the plans and made new ones, and Phil told his sponsee (is that a word?) that he was now able to be at her Confirmation.  You know what she told him?  She said since the moment she had found out Phil wasn't able to come, she had been praying to St. Therese to find a way to allow him to be there!

St. Therese is so amazing, I have my own rose story with her, but did she really have to make me go TEN DAYS LATE?  Therese, if I ever make it through the golden gates, you got some 'splainin to do :)

6)

OK, enough Baptism talk, even though it was an amazing day!  So I went back to work yesterday.  Boo.  But it was better than I expected and 7 week old Declan did great at the nanny's house with Xander.  He slept 5 hours of the 8 I was away from him!!  What a "good little fella", as Xander always says.

7) 
Last weekend, we went to a track meet for the five Catholic elementary schools in our area, and Andrew came in 1st place in the Half Mile race with a time of 3:01.  THREE OH ONE!

Andrew with his track coaches: my sister, her hubby, and Phil.

He's so stinkin' fast and paces himself so well, I am in awe.  He definitely doesn't get that from me, but he is my favorite exercise buddy.

Have a great looooong weekend everyone!!


17 comments:

  1. First of all- you look awesome. Second, your family is so beautiful and the newest addition is breathtaking. And finally 70 people!??!?! om lowercase g- that is a party!

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  2. It all looks so beautiful, amazing and fun; but #5 ~ yes she got some splainin to do!

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  3. I love all of these pictures. And that baptism gown is fabulous!

    I'm glad Declan was good for the sitter and I hope you made it through the day okay.

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  4. Just thinking out loud here but is there such a thing as too many baby pictures? Especially on a baptismal post? I think not.

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  5. Oh my gosh, he looks like such an angel!

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  6. Happy Baptism to Declan! That gown is awesome - ours are long but not THAT long :) Love that it's an heirloom!

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  7. nice pics. what a happy day.

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  8. Happy Baptism Day Declan! Great pictures!

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  9. Such a beautiful blessing for your baby to be baptized by his grandfather!! Congratulations Declan and God bless you sweet baby!
    I wish I had taken as many photos as you did :(
    I had too many things to carry and a carry and they did not let us take pictures inside our church :( YOu were lucky...
    Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Holy Cow! I guess no one should mess around in their prayers to St. Therese. She hears them. Sorry you were so overdue. Miserable, miserable, miserable.

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  11. woo hoo for a fabulous baptism, sounds like it was a big party! I cannot believe that Andrew ran the mile so fast, sounds like you will have a lot more races to celebrate in the future.

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  12. Love the fairy godparents!
    most of all, I love the baptism gown. That's a good idea to make the gown from the wedding gown. I should do that... except I am not so handy and creative. I am going to ask my mom.. we will see if she is willing to tear up my wedding gown to make something as beautiful as yours! God bless you, Declan Kolbe!
    xoxo

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  13. Wonderful pictures! And love that baptismal gown - how special.

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  14. AnonymousMay 23, 2014

    I believe the word is "confirmand". Beautiful pictures!

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  15. Congratulations on Declan's baptism!! What a beautiful day with so many beautiful "touches".

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  16. All of these pics are great!
    Such a special day!
    And I still can't believe he's not a March baby! ;)

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  17. I love the story about St. Therese. Your little one is so handsome - and I LOVE the bit about dedicating all your kids to Mary. Have you ever shared how you do that?

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