Zamirahs Baptism

Finally we have succeeded in getting our 7th child Baptised. This might sound easy, but the more children we have, the harder things like this are to organise. In part because we lack the motivation we once had… Not sure where it went, but somewhere between the 3rd and 4th child the newness, and excitement of occasions was replaced with a realistic daunting enlightenment that occasions are money sucking days that disappear in the blink of an eye, and that no matter how hard you try, you can not make everyone happy.
Our aim is to just get through the day and hope for the best, and surprisingly this is working relatively well.
The lead up is tremendously time-consuming, at times stressful, but the day is gone super fast, and with each baptism you know the things that didn’t work well previously, so human nature is to tweak theses issues aiming to illuminate all negative moments.
This is actually impossible, unless you take out 90% of the guests, including some of our own children … Don’t get me wrong, all the people we invite are important to us and our children, but they aren’t all necessarily going to be important in a positive way to each other ;)
Overall, with the diverse selection of family and friends we have, the day went really well.

We woke to a beautiful 14 degree day, black skies, gale winds, bucketing rain; a typical Albany day. The plus we had over other people was that we were all really ill, and had high temperatures. To us, it felt like a pleasant day of about 24 degrees with a slight breeze.
Zamirah was amazing, I really thought she would scream the church down; temperamental should have been her middle name, but unpredictably she was brilliant! We gave her nurofen for her soaring temperature, and it mellowed her just enough that she was alert, but not making a scene.

It is both hard and easy to pick godparents, we have found that in a strange way the child picks them for us, as each child has a connection that you can only hope, but not guarantee. We have tried to not have immediate family fulfil this role, as an Aunt or Uncle will always be part of the child’s life regardless. We have been so lucky with each set, and regardless of where life takes us, we have made it clear what we expect and feel very blessed that they understand and make the effort with their godchild consistently.

We momentarily entertained the thought the godparents had decided to pull out, as both the godmother and godfather were slightly late! We were getting ready to do a godparent hunt, and drag them to fulfil their duties, but they arrived ready to commit to this lifetime responsibility.
The priest was wonderful, and was happy to wait till we were ready, and made the whole ceremony work for us.
I think we had more children in the church than adults, and this always helps keep the day in perspective.

Once the formalities were over, we all went back to the motel to celebrate getting through another family occasion, welcoming the godparents into our immediate family, and officially celebrate Zamirah into the catholic family.

Thankyou to everyone that helped make this day another memorable occasion.