Christening

We had a special day on Sunday! James was Christened at First United Methodist Church in Tifton. We're still members at our home church so we went to Tifton on Saturday night and had his Christening during Early Church on Sunday morning.

He wore his great-grandfather's gown. James is named after Eddie's granddaddy and he wore the gown that that James (Jim) wore. It is at least 88 years old since he was born in June of 1921. I thought we might not be able to use it because it had aged and was extremely yellowed. However, good old Oxyclean saved the day! After a couple of hours in an Oxyclean soak, it was much nicer looking than it had previously been! He also wore booties under his gown that were made by my grandmother (Daddy's mama) for me when I was Christened 26 years ago. He's a little larger than I was at his age! They were pretty tight on those fat cankles (as Aunt Sassy calls them!).

Another special thing was that Mom and Sonny went to Israel in March (I was pregnant but we had only told MaraDare and Cal at that point) and while she was there, she bought water from the Jordan River for her grandchildren to be Christened in. She had no idea how soon the first bottle would be put to use. Eddie asked me while we were getting ready how much water we should use. "Should we use a quarter of our bottle? A tenth?" Ha! We didn't use all of it, but we definitely used more than a tenth!

At the end of the service, after the message, Glenn asked that anyone who felt led could come down to the front and touch the water from the baptismal. What a moving time! Mama said he'd been doing that for a while now, but what a wonderful experience to see! What better time to reconnect with God than during a Christening at the beginning of the year. Such a symbolic thing! I loved it!

We were so moved by the number of friends that attended the service for James. I was expecting no one to be there since we had it at the 9 o'clock service and it was beyond cold outside. However, we looked out and saw lots of friends that came to the Early Service simply to support us! What a great feeling! Thank you!

After the service was over the grandparents and aunts (John was not in town) gathered back at Mom's house for a brunch. It was delicious and so kind of her to prepare it for us to be able to get together. My child is certainly loved!