Getting the baptism ball rolling...

That's right, the decision has been made.

I first called the closest Catholic Church to us. It's in a very uppity area. They were.... errrr... as welcoming as a very conservative Catholic Church in a wealthy spot could be? But the lady was nice enough to give me the low down on other churches in the area. She told me about one about 15 minutes from us that has lots of young families and has a more relaxed feel. So I decided to have Brian and I go to mass to try it out last Sunday.

I really liked it. It was very welcoming. They even had an altar girl (1st time I've seen that in a catholic church!) and laminated "follow along with mass" guide in the pews. The homily was great; it was very digestible and a wonderful message about not judging. 

I met with a woman from the church today, and we sat and talked for about an hour. She talked to me about having our marriage validated by the church. She talked to me about having Hartley baptized. She talked to me about the young mother's group; they do moms night out, play groups and bible study. She introduced me to the person who organizes the young adult activities. She was a very sweet lady who put me at ease and was genuinely thrilled to be welcoming us to her church.

So Brian and I are officially members. We are registered for baptism class next Thursday. And I'm hoping the community feel she advertised so well will be a great way of meeting some  young moms with babies in the area.

I was so nervous about this whole thing. I haven't regularly attended church in 10 years! Obviously, we didn't get married in a church. I felt like I was going to walk in the church with my six month belly asking to baptize my baby, and they would laugh in my face. 

Instead they told us all our options. If Brian wanted to complete his sacraments, they would welcome him to but would not pressure him to. They told me I was welcome to come to their "welcome back Catholics" class if I wanted but again, no pressure. They said because neither of us have been divorced and we have been married for a while, that having our marriage validated would be "easy". I need to set up a meeting with the priest, and we'll be required to show our marriage license and baptism certificates and fill out paperwork. Then we'll set something up to actually be married. Kind of funny. Apparently people do this though and they'll even schedule their church ceremony on their wedding anniversary to remember both.

Miss Hartley's baptism sounds like a piece of cake - only 1 class! We need to discuss godparents. One has to be a practicing Catholic. The other could just be a good Christian but needs to be the opposite gender of the Catholic godparent. 

Feels so strange to me that I'm doing all this. I'm going to be the mom dragging her kid to church instead of the kid being dragged! Before I left for the meeting, I looked at myself in the mirror thinking I looked like a girl who got herself in to a little trouble (then shoved my wedding ring on to my fat ass finger... snug as can be). Now I'm reading my church bulletin and looking at baptismal gowns for my daughter, feeling so grown up. And kind of wondering how that happened.