The Godfather

Yesterday was Jenna's Baptism. Jerry is her Godfather, so we had a very long and eventful day. Maddy was a little trooper though - she was excellent all through church and at the party afterwards. She passed out in the car on the way home.

Here's the only downfall... You see Jerry was raised Catholic, his whole family is Catholic. OK. My family is Baptist. When we got married, we chose to just start going to a non-denominational, Christian church together (rather than chose between the two family churches). This worked well, and we were both really happy with our decision. We love our Pastor, and we like the service, etc.

The families seemed to have accepted our decision (with a little bitterness on Jerry's side, especially). Well, since Jenna had her big christening hoop-la yesterday, the subject rared its big ugly head again. "Are you having a baptism for Maddy?" "Why isn't Maddy getting baptised today too?" You get the picture.

Here's the thing, our church does Baptise babies, but it is not at all the big deal that it is in the Catholic church. There is no fancy gown, and there is no special oils and a big special ceremony or anything. It is just a quick thing that the Pastor does as part of our regular service. This is much more Jerry and I, and this is what will happen when Maddy gets "baptised" next month. There will be no big huge party or anything - just the grandparents and a few select family members for brunch. Very low-key.

This is not sitting well with Jerry's grandma, and thus I heard about it all day yesterday. I told Jerry's mom, b/c I dare not say anything to the grand pu-baa of the family, that I didn't understand why she was so caught up on this. I told her that I wish she would just respect our decision not to raise our children Catholic, and to understand that I didn't grow up Catholic and I wish she wouldn't treat our church as if it's not legitimate or important. I hate that so much. Here's what I learned:
Jerry's family thinks that I turned him "not Catholic," that I forced this decision on him.

Whatever. I give up. I don't know how many times they need to hear Jerry say that it was his choice and that we are doing what is best for our family. You know what I say, at least he's going to church, which is more than I can say for the majority of the rest of the "Catholic" family members!