Celebrating a Baptism Day

 Five years ago, I became a Godmother to a beautiful little girl.  I was deeply honored to be asked, and was excited to play this role in Lydia's life. 

I knew that I would  be intentional in praying for her, being present in her life, and coming alongside her parents in teaching her about our faith.  But as her first birthday drew near, I also knew that I wanted to celebrate her Baptism with her every year.  Just like we celebrated the day that she entered the world, we also could celebrate the day that she was washed free of original sin and welcomed into God's family.

So each year, I give Lydia three pearls, one each for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  One day she will have enough pearls to have a necklace or Rosary made.

(*Update- (Affiliate Link) If you are curious, these are the pearls that I ordered more recently for another Goddaughter.  I order about 60 at a time so that they will match and I have them each year for the anniversary until she turns 20.  The pearls are real but inexpensive because they are slightly irregular.  I am pleased with their quality and think they will still make a lovely Rosary or necklace.) 

I give her pearls to remind her that she is "far more precious than jewels" (Proverbs 31:10), and her soul is the "pearl of great price" (Matthew 13:46) that Christ seeks.  One day, I'm sure we'll talk about how she "shouldn't cast her pearls before swine" (Matthew 7:6), but that topic hasn't come up yet. :)

 Last year when she was four, I started what I hope is a long tradition of spending her baptism day together.  Lydia loves arts and crafts, so we went to a local paint your own pottery place.

 This year, we came to my apartment for a craft day that also included going out to lunch and a walk to the park. We first made this pretty bag for her to use.  The owl is her handprint, and she traced the bigger letters and wrote her own name at the bottom.  She really liked using the glitter paint, but the tubes were a bit hard for her to squeeze with her little hands.  A preschool teacher I am not.

 While we were waiting for part of it to dry, she drew this cute picture of us :)

 I gave her a few other crafting options, and she chose to make a treasure box to store little things in.

Step One: tear up lots of tissue paper.

 Step Two: Cover a small box with diluted mod podge.  She used a foam brush, which worked well.

 She kept painting on glue and layering paper and did a great job even with the edges.

 Step Three: Finally, we glued a picture of Jesus inside, because he is our real treasure.

Kind of the final result- it was still wet at this point, and I forgot to take a picture of it later.  You get the idea.

If you have the blessing of being a Godparent, I hope you find a special way to celebrate with your Godchild that is unique to them and lets them know how much you and God love them!