Oct 14, 2010

Breaking News: Biggest Baby Ever Blessed!

In the L.D.S. church, we don't baptize new babies.  We do, however, bless them.  Specifically, a worthy male member of the church holding the Melchizedek priesthood, usually the Baby-Daddy, will give the newborn a name (officially entered into church records) and a blessing.

Baby blessings generally occur in front of the congregation on the first Sunday of the month.  (The first Sunday of the month is also reserved for Fast and Testimony meeting.)  Most babies are blessed at around two or three months old.
(Top two photo's by Maxwell.)

Unfortunately, when Baby Gray was born, Doug's good friend Merrill was still deployed to Afghanistan.  Since our friends here are our family, we wanted to wait for him to be able to participate.  

But by the time Merrill came home, Doug's good friend Wes had been deployed to Korea.  So of course, we wanted to wait for him to be here to participate.

Which is why Baby Gray was just blessed this month at the ripe old age of six months.  (And he wasn't happy about it.  He cried all the way through the blessing.)  I'm surprised the men didn't drop the little tank!  Had we waited any longer, he could have hopped down and crawled away.

Now, these blessings can be audibly recorded, (we usually drop a tape recorder in Doug's suit pocket) but video recordings and photographs are generally (okay, always) frowned upon in the Chapel.

(These are some of the best men I know.)

But Doug's Catholic dental assistant didn't know that when she recorded the blessing on her i-Phone and took a bunch of pictures!  Which is why we're probably the only family you know with a video recording of their baby blessing!  :)  (Thanks May!  You rock!)  :)
Anyway, we were very happy to finally bless our sweet little Grayson, incredibly grateful to have Merrill and Wes back safely to participate, (with Doug's other wonderful friends; Mark, Rob, Ryan, and Dave), and thrilled that so many other friends and co-workers not of our faith, made the effort to be there to support us.  
(Yes, his name is still Grayson Brandon.  Doug didn't pull any last second switch-a-roos)

It means a lot--especially when we're so far from home and have no "real" family attending.  (I say "real" to differentiate--not diminish--their importance since, as I said, our friends here are our family.)

We love you Gray-Gray!  Glad you're finally "official"!

(By-the-way, the two blog posts linked above are two of my favorite posts ever!!!)

4 comments:

  1. That is just awesome - glad the guys made it back safely and Grayson is all "official" now. I had to chuckle about the iPhone recording. Off the record, of course. I'm trying to look solemn and pretend I'm frowning upon it. ;-)

    That and I'm still giggling about the fact that you used the phrase "Baby-Daddy". heeheehee

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  2. That is awesome!! COngrats on finally getting that cutie blessed!

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  3. Congrats baby Gray and Fam!!!

    Do you remember how we couldn't bless Dalyn until after his adoption... he was the oldest, when all was said and done, and we moved so no one knew, and he looks exactly like us, but we blessed him at 2 1/2 years old, and we got him a chair.

    I just remember the look on everyone's face when the bishop said "we have a baby blessing today" and everyone was looking around because there were no new babies in our ward.

    I never explained after either, so I am sure it was good "biddy fodder" for the hallways and foyer! hehehehe!

    But he was cute.... and Gray is way way cute!!!!!!!! Wish I could hold him cuz' I want a baby!!!

    So hey, why does the new picture format for blogger mess my post up so much in google reader... do you know what I am doing wrong?

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  4. Emily, those two pictures of you, Doug and Gray are sooooooo great! You all look beautiful!
    Congratulations!!! When Doug sent that email about inviting Robert to be in the circle, I kept wondering if you forgot that you had already blessed Gray or something. Seriously:) Thanks to Doug for included Rob (I cannot believe I just called him "Rob"). He felt special--haha. Thank you for your friendship!

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