Wonderful news…

Today McCanless and I took Mary Clare to have her portrait made with Steve Roos. In the midst of washing our christening gown, finding Mel’s baby cross that McCanless wore on her baptism day and preparing for the photo shoot, I realized that we haven’t spread the wonderful news on-line of Mary Clare’s baptism.

She was baptized by our rector and pastor at St. Bartholomew’s, Father Michael Ridgill at MUSC on July 1st, the day before her first surgery. Mel and I both felt strongly about baptizing her before her surgery and Father Michael was kind enough to travel down to Charleston for us for that special day. (We are also extremely grateful for his weekly visits to be with us, pray with us, and offer communion during our entire stay in Charleston.)

While standing in the huge open PCICU, with monitoring beeps sounding, other “heart babies” all around and nurses passing by, our sweet Mary Clare lay paralyzed with IV lines and tubes encompassing her tiny body. Father Michael said very few precious words and quietly baptized her with water simply given to us by the PCICU desk staff in a styrofoam cup. It wasn’t glamorous, she wasn’t draped in a long white christening gown, we didn’t have family and friends surrounding us, only the two of us with Mary Clare. It was, however, a calm peaceful moment that left us feeling uplifted and extremely hopeful.

I’m hoping we will soon have some sort of celebration for her baptism, as we did for McCanless, to officially mark this monumental occasion. We certainly have such reason to celebrate!