Ava's Christening.

After what seemed like many months of trying to set a date, reserve a church, and just generally get this show on the road, the day finally came! Today was Ava's Christening at All Saints Episcopal Church in Austin, and it was absolutely beautiful. Check it out for yourself:

The Beautiful All Saints Episcopal Church:


Gorgeous Church Interior:




Before the Ceremony:




Our Little Family:


Waiting on our Guests:


(Have you ever seen a more beautiful sight?)



The Ceremony:
(This is my favorite picture of our family)


(Yes, she fell asleep midway through - poor little sleepyhead!)




Attendees:


Ava & Father Walker:


The Celebratory Bunny Cake I Made:


I am so happy with how today went! Thank you to everyone who was there to celebrate with us - we wanted it to be a small, intimate ceremony with our closest friends and local adopted family, and it was exactly that. The only bummer was that Ava's godfather had to miss the ceremony, but we'll see him this week to make up for it!

A special thanks to Father Walker for performing both her ceremony and my own. It seems ever so born-again Christian of me, but I had my own baptismal ceremony privately yesterday afternoon. While I know that it wasn't necessary, I didn't feel right about sending Ava into the Episcopalian faith alone, with her dad being baptized Catholic and my (Jack) Mormon background. I have always known that the Mormon faith was not by any means for me, and though I've attended St. James for a year now and have studied the Episcopalian faith, it was important to me to make it official so that I would be able to give her the guidance and answers she might need someday.

Hope everyone is having as wonderful a weekend as we are!