Liam's Baptism 07.27.08

Last Sunday we had Liam baptized at Grace Presbyterian Church by Reverend Leslie Walker.  Mark and I met with Leslie last week to discuss our journey in the church and our plans for Liam.  Following our meeting, we stayed for the service and were quite impressed with Leslie and her sermon.  After meeting her, it was quite apparent that she is very serious about her faith.  Serious in the sense of deep, not formal or strict.  We had a good feeling about Leslie and were happy that she was able to accommodate the baptism for Liam on Sunday for the Waldrons to witness, even though there were no other baptisms planned until the Fall.

We weren't sure how Liam would react to being the center of attention at a new place.  Christian was baptized at 3 months, so Liam being just 20 months would be a whole different experience because he is much more mobile and sentient than Christian was at 3 months.  Liam was great.  He was pretty good during the blessing but when he saw Christian walking around a bit, he made a squirmy move to get down from my arms.  I didn't want him to get down because I didn't want him to stray far.  He has this thing about small stairs where he wants to go up and down them and the church had a few small steps separating the area where we were standing for a blessing and the baptismal font.  After affirming our faith and promise to raise Liam in the faith, Leslie blessed Liam with a few sprinkles of water, the last of which Liam wiped from his brow but did not seemed bothered by it.  Christian was pretty intrigued by the water blessing and was happy to see Liam blessed.  He told me that he wanted to be blessed too, but I explained to him that when he was a baby, he was blessed with water and now it was Liam's turn.  After the baptism, Christian, Liam and I headed into the Sunday school room while Mark and his parents remained in the sanctuary for the rest of the service.

Following the service, we celebrated by going to Prince's Island Park (think a mini-mini-mini-Central Park) and having brunch at the River Cafe in the park.  The food was pretty good, but I was busy keeping track of Liam who wanted to go outside and listen to the folk music that was playing at the Calgary Folk Music Festival happening right outside the restaurant and also wanted to check out the ducks on the Bow River.  It was a nice afternoon which really felt like summer.  On our way home, though, we could see the humongous dark clouds gathering.   We got stuck in a bit of a hail storm.  Hail in the summer?  Yep.  The temperature went from 25 C down to 12 C in a matter of a few minutes.  Crazy Calgary weather for you.  Liam was so tired from being the star of the day that he slept through the hail pelting on our car.  We got home just in time for more napping and when Liam woke a few hours later, we celebrated with steaks on the BBQ and homemade cupcakes for dessert.