The Hard Part
Well there will be two more groups entered into court before the closure. This is it for us. It must be. I hope so. I don't know if hubby could handle having to wait until November to travel. He turned 40 today and work is super, very, astonishingly stressful right now for him. His company is in a huge conversion at work--upgrading all PCs to Windows XP. They have to upgrade some 12,000 computers this month without a glitch as they are a brokerage firm and the home office (where he works) needs to be functioning. It is stressful as if it doesn't go right--he is the guy they call--as his boss is on his 2+ week honeymoon.
Anyway. I a going to be absoluetly crazy, insane, checking my email every day--not that I don't do that obsessively already. I can't even imagine not getting into one of the next 2 groups. I mean--our director expects us to make it. That must mean we have a really good chance. Okay--I will stop over analyzing my analysis. Yeah good luck Finley.....
Okay now the hard questions. I have been back and forth about this until I have worn a hole through the carpet and subfloor. Do we baptize our baby or not. Neither hubby or I are very religious. I can't remember the last time I went to church when there wasn't a funeral or a wedding. And I certainly can't remember the last time I really wanted to go to church. Hubby is a very spritual man and appreciates all religion for its beliefs but does not subscribe to an orgainzed doctrine. Neither do I. I was baptized Catholic and took my first communion but was never confirmed and after I was about 9 we never really went to church anymore. But then I feel like I am making a choice for him. I guess either way I am making a choice for him. My hubby's family is very non-religious--atheists to be exact. I just don't know. I can't believe how incredibly hard this decision is, but it is hard. For those of you who are not religious how have you made this decision. I know it is personal, but I am really curious how people make it.
Okay--still haven't heard yet. HA HA. Oh the next week or so will be really long....
4 comments:
My husband is not religious. Most of his family is not, yet the grandchildren still had a Christening. I do go to church and take Supergirl with me. However, I chose NOT to have her Christened, simply due to the fact I really feel that is a choice I cannot make for her. It is simply a ceremony. One we skipped. We took her pictures in the 'family Christening gown' at home on a weekday :)
My kids aren't baptized. We had "spiritual" blessing ceremonies for both of them - we pretty much wrote and designed them, then hired a "minister" to perform them. They were beautiful - God was definately there. We do belong to and attend a church, but baptism is up to them if they want it someday. Just our approach - obviously most of the world feels differently, and I certainly respect the religious choices of others (as long as they are respectful back!)
Hi Dawn,
I grew up in a moral but non religious home as did my husband. We both became Christians (after a lot of study and research) as adults and chose to be baptised then. It is a super personal decision and if you want to have Noah christened I would say "go for it" but if it feels hollow or not meaningful to you I would wait. I have never heard of an adult resenting their parents decision to have them baptised as a baby (most non religious/agnostic/aethiest and even Buddhist friends of mine figure it can't hurt :-)).
I hope you meke it into one of the next two groups!
Sincerely,
Lynda S
Hi Dawn,
I appreciate where you're coming from. I grew up Methodist (not very religious) and then was atheist from 14 to 28. Then I had a conversion experience and my doubts about God and Jesus were answered such that it would have taken more faith for me to not believe. For awhile, my wife and I attended different churches, not sure where we should be. Then, after much study and prayer, I became Catholic and my wife returned to the Catholic faith. (And we have never been happier! Please email me if you'd like me to point you to any resources or if have any questions about Christianity/Catholicism).
So I see this from two different perspectives. If I had had any kids when I was atheist, I think I would have been ambivalent. Part of me would want to avoid baptism because it would not be sincere on my part to ask for it. The other part of me would more or less say, "It couldn't hurt." From my perspective now, I definitely think you should do so. Look at it this way. You may not believe now that it's necessary or meaningful... but someday you might. I don't think you'd regret doing it. Logically speaking, if there is no God, then baptism is just a harmless ceremony. However, if God does exist and He did institute baptism as a cleansing and heavenly rebirth to give us the first graces we need on the spiritual journey toward union with Him in Heaven... then I'm you would want this for your child, right? (The other side of the issue is the debate over infant baptism versus adult baptism. If you're interested in this, please email me.)
By the way, I'm leaving Saturday to pick up our two new boys from Layla House: Baye,7, and Mikias, 2. We're not sure if they've been baptized so we're going to have a "conditional baptism" which basically is a regular baptism but acknowledges that there is no effect if the boys have in fact already been baptised.
I'd say if you're still unsure, pray, pray and pray some more! God bless you.
Brett Cooper
brettandorjulie@yahoo.com
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