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Savannah Joy gets baptized!

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For the record, every baptism should have lasers. 

Team Smith had a wonderful day surrounded by friends and family at our Episcopal home in Chicago, Church of Our Saviour in Lincoln Park. Savvy seems to get happier by the day, even when cold water is poured over her head in the middle of a crowd. Grandpa John and Grandma Patti drove in from Detroit, and Aunt Rene and Cousin Hannah made the trek from Elgin to take part in the celebration. We even got to hang out with our dear friends the Wilmarth Tynas and Liz Gray (soon-to-be-a-celebrity), and Liz blessed us with her vocal talents and joined our quartet singing "Down to the River to Pray" (many thanks to Mike and Cate Mascari for the diverse musical selections).

Savannah's dress was, well, "plain and simple" as you can see, and the catering department at Roosevelt did a great job with the quiches and the delicious cake (made even sweeter since my meal plan paid for it!). Per usual, Cassidy spent most of the service running around with her friends (especially Julia WT), and the only picture she's in below, she's still in motion.  We'll have to add a picture of Savvy's baptismal banner later: each member of the family is represented as a felt stick figure - I'm white, J is black, and both of the kids are a light caramel brown.

Bottom line? Even in the midst of uncertainty about what (and where) our next step will be as a family, today was about joy and gratefulness: we have so much to be happy about, and thankful for.

...and I didn't forget about the lasers: the best way to describe today's postlude was an 80's-pop-basketball-halftime arrangement of 'Wade in the Water' on a Roland Fantom - it has to be experienced to be believed. It's not every Sunday that folks say "rock on" after a traditional hymn :) 

































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