Good morning sunshine!
For the 5th night in a row, we did not get to sleep until 3 am. Darn it - I wish your mom's brain would shut down and we could get to bed at 10. I think it is going to come to a head and we are going to crash for like the whole weekend :) I am so excited - only 2 days until we get to see you again. I can't wait to go to the doctor. I read that dr. appointments often go to every 2 weeks now in the third trimester and then shortly after to weekly. I don't think I will argue with him on that one. I am anxious to see you. Your dad and I had a funny conversation 2 nights ago. It finally hit him that you are coming in a few short weeks. Not only are we on the single digit count down, we are on the 2.5 week countdown until your room has to be ready. To say it took him by surprise would be an understatement :)
So, a couple of weeks ago (probably about 1 am when I do my best thinking), I realized your dad and I hadn't talked about your baptism. I had always assumed that we would baptize you Catholic and raise you in the Catholic church but your dad and I hadn't confirmed that. I knew that your arrival would indicate our cut off from slacking and require us to go to church more frequently. We can't expect you to be faithful and learn about religion unless we are. So, I smacked myself upside the head and said "Oh no, something new for Mark and I to disagree on."
As with all of your major life decisions, I emailed your dad at work. haha. He agreed that he wanted to baptize you Catholic and we bantered back and forth on who your Godparents should be. I had definite requirements for this role model in your life. I wanted it to be someone who is related to us and I wanted it to be someone who was spiritual. Not necessarily Catholic but someone with a strong faith - remember those posts about religion? I want you to believe in God but may not really a Catholic God. We do have spiritual friends and we did toss them around but I was really stuck on it being relation rather than friends. My Godmother was my mom's best friend at the time and I don't think I have seen her in over 7 years - and, that was a freak run in at the mall. With family, you are stuck with them no matter what. I have seen my Godfather - it is your uncle Jeff. But, to keep it real with you, your Unc is not the most religious man. If he is, he keeps it all in heart and mind so he has never passed that on to me unless it was through osmosis in a thump to the head.
Surprisingly, this was an easy decision when I told your dad my choices. He agreed to them. I offered him the choice to choose someone on his side of the family but he did not have anyone that he wanted to use so they are both on my side of the family. We haven't talked to your prospective Godfather yet - I will leave that to your dad to do in a few weeks. However, I would like to introduce you to your Godmother. *drum roll please* Your Grampa Larry's sister, your Aunt Becky, has agreed to be your Godmother. Not only is this an excellent way for us to honor your Grampa Larry and his family, your Aunt Becky is one of the most spiritual people I know. I have no doubt that she will take this role very seriously and do her best to make sure that we are raising you with a strong sense of faith and spirituality. Outside of faith, your Aunt Becky is kind and has a strong sense of family - both of which are important to your dad and me. Yes, it does mean that you are stuck with your goofy Uncle Steve being around but once you get used to him, it is easy to ignore him :) Even though he won't officially be your Godfather, I know he will support your Aunt Becky in her role and also be a spiritual role model. Despite his crude, rude and funny behavior (it took your dad a lot of years to come to love that about him!), he is also a very spiritual man.
So, I hope we did you proud in our decision making, Little Elijah. I will post back to you in a few weeks when we have the official acceptance from your Godfather. Since he doesn't know we are asking him, it sure doesn't seem fair to introduce you to him now - maybe he secretly worships the devil and will turn the role down :)
On a related note, have I ever told you what your name means or how it came to me? Remember how I told you that I had a few experiences in my life where I felt like I heard the voice of God? I feel like Elijah was that way too. I was sitting there and out of the blue, this voice appeared in my head and told me Elijah. Some could argue that it was the *other* voices in my head but I choose to believe that it was divine. When I looked up what it means, I was even more convinced. Elijah officially means "My God is the Lord." I hope you will find that to be true, my little bambino and I hope Aunt Becky will help shine the light on that for you.
