~A Sign For Our Baby~

Three of my four children were all baptized when they were just infants.  Like me, they were baptized Catholic.  During the time my first two children were baptized, I was practicing the Catholic faith.

I would attend mass most weekends, and for the most part, I actually enjoyed attending.  My first two children enjoyed going to mass with me, especially my eldest.  My first two children also attended a Catholic school.

By the time my third child was born however, I was more or less finding myself walking a new path, and it was a path that was leading me away from the Catholic faith.  In my heart I had been questioning many things for quite some time, and I was slowly turning away from the teachings of the Church.

When I became pregnant with my fourth child, I was newly re-married and no longer practicing or following the Catholic faith.  It had been years since I had even attended mass.  

While pregnant with my fourth child, I brought the issue of baptism up with my new husband.  He is not a religious person and does not affiliate himself with any particular faith or religion.  He believes in God, but does not follow any particular set of beliefs.

I asked my husband about whether or not we should baptize our baby.  I did not really feel in my heart like I wanted our child specifically baptized Catholic, I just didn't want our baby to feel left out since his/her older siblings have all been baptized.  

My current husband was not sure about what we should do any more than I was.  I decided to visit a dear friend of mine, an older Catholic priest.  He not only baptized me, but all three of my children as well.

He is a very kind, caring man that I very much admire.  He is exactly what comes to mind when one wonders what God must be like.  He is such a nice man, so soft spoken.  I can't even find the right words to convey how much I care for, respect and admire him.

After visiting with him and talking to him about whether to baptize my fourth child, he asked me if I was following the teachings of the religion any more, which I wasn't.  I then realized that it didn't make much sense to baptize my child into a faith I no longer believed in. 

As only a man of God would do, he suggested that I ask God about what to do, and put my trust in Him.  I very much agreed with him, and decided to do just that.  

When I arrived home, I told my husband about what Father John and I had talked about and that I had decided to simply put it into God's hands.  I told my husband that I very much believed that God would send us a sign.  My husband agreed with me and we left it at that.

A few months later our son was born.  The night after he was born, it was around 9 p.m, and I was in the washroom.  I was cleaning myself up and getting ready for bed.  I was washing my face and brushing my teeth.  My husband was sitting in our hospital room watching t.v, holding our newborn baby boy in his arms.

When I came out of the washroom, my husband informed me that an older woman had just come into the room and asked to see me.  My husband said that he told her I was in the washroom but I would probably be out in just a moment.  She apparently said, "Oh, it's okay.  I'll just leave this here for the baby."  

My husband then pointed to a small box that was sitting on the bedside table.  I asked him what it was and he told me he had no idea.  I picked up the box and opened it.  Inside was a rosary.  I was rather confused.  I asked my husband why someone would bring a rosary for our son.  I then asked my husband about the woman that brought it.  He said that he had no idea who she was.  She never told him who she was or gave him her name, and he said that he had never seen her before.

It didn't make sense to me.  Months prior to my son's birth, when filling out all of the paper work required to register for my labour and delivery at the hospital, I never checked off any religion.  I also never bothered writing anything down.  I had simply left all of that blank. I hadn't identified myself with any religion.  So, why would someone bring us a rosary?

I sat down in my hospital bed, still holding the rosary and looking at it.  All of a sudden I realized something and I began to smile. My husband asked me what I was smiling at.  I said, "I think God just gave us our sign about what to do about our baby being baptized."  

My husband just looked at me, smiled and said, "I think you're right."

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