Ship Baptism

As a Navy Wife I'm lucky to make a number of wonderful friends. Hey there has to be some sort of upside when the hubby is gone so much. And in January two of those friends invited me to their little girl's baptism. It was to be held on the husband's ship on a Saturday morning. I had never been to a ship baptism and was intrigued. What would occur? My hubby was unavailable at the time so it would just be me. Such is Navy life.

As you can see from the first photo they actually use the ship's bell to hold the baptism water. And the history that goes with it was so amazing. In days of old British sailors would have their children, born in different ports, baptized on the ship. That would make said child become a British citizen since a ship is considered part of the country. The child's name was then engraved in the bell as part of the record. Since paper records were not kept as well as they are today.

And I did manage to take the photos that you are seeing here. I just wasn't using my camera. Thanks Becky for sending them to me.

The really neat part is that Becky and Ryan got to have Father Mike perform the baptism. He had been their pastor in California. And if I'm remembering this correctly, please forgive any errors. He retired and is now a contractor pastor for Quantico. So he drove down from Quantico to baptize little Clare. Sorry Father Mike I don't have any cash to send you for using your likeness on my blog. Please forgive me!

That's right! It was little Miss Clare from my Morning With Mommy & Baby blog.

There she is with her Auntie Shell. I normally don't post pictures of myself because I look AWFUL, but since Becky sent it I will post it. Ignore the big person and coo over the little one.