[juliepkamer]

Has anyone had their child baptized in antigua? thnk julie

[drasusi]

Our foster mom asked about baptizing the baby, but we chose to wait til we were home. I needed a copy of my baptismal certificate to be married in the Catholic church...I would hate to stick my child with trying to get paperwork from Guatemala in the future!

[robandjulie]

We have been tossing this around ourselves, thinking of asking the foster parents to stand as Godparents, but we were worried about the same thing drasusi mentioned...chasing down official copies of the baptismal certificate for confirmation and/or marriage.

I'm excited to see if anyone else has any experience or research on this.

[akasohappy]

Our foster family asked our permission to have Kate's baby dedication at their church. I thought that was sweet and then we did baptism at home, but I did consider doing it there. I wonder if there are required classes for baptism (Catholic) down there too.
I think it sounds WONDERFUL.
If you don't end up baptising the baby in Guat. maybe you could at least purchase baptism gown there.
I know this is not what you are asking, but at St. Thomas iglesia in Chichicastenango Kate was blessed and purified by the priest. (They also did a modified version of the ceremony to me as the mother.)
It was very emotional and beautiful.
It is one of my favorite memories of Guatemala.

[LilmissBrianna]

Julie,
Do it!!! I think that it would be wonderful to have your child baptised there. Just get a copy of the baptismal certificate for her and make copies. It will probably be in spanish which would make it even more special for her. I wished that I would have had my little one baptised in GC and had her foster family stand for her. That would have been such a special link for her and the family. When I seen your post I regreted not doing it.
I also looked everywhere for a dress for her baptism- I couldn't find one that was big enough. Most went only till 3 months.
Good luck I would love to know what you decide.
Yvonne

[dilgra]

We purchased our DDs baptism dress in Antigua while there on our pick up trip. We wanted to have the ceremony at home with our family, church family and friends. We had it on Father's Day which was also 2 days before her first birthday so we had her first prof. photos taken at that time. She was wearing the gown in some of the shots.

Best of luck in whatever you decide to do!

[Kimberj71]

Another thing to consider other than getting future copies of the baptismal certificate is how the Catholic church tracks records of sacraments received.

Every sacrament a person receives is stored in the church (or diocese) where baptism was received. So if she wanted a church copy of a record of her confirmation or marriage (for whatever reason) she would have to get it from the church she was baptized in.

Our fostermother had our daughter blessed before she came to the U.S. Knowing that was very touching to us and is a beautiful part of her story.

Kim