Baptism, May 2007

On the Feast of the Ascension, May 20th, 2007 at 12:00 noon, we had the baptism ceremony for our son, Antonio Vachirawit Navarro. The ceremony was held at the Church of the Holy Redeemer, here in Bangkok, Thailand.



Here we are standing for the baptism, with Little Nio's godparents, Ruthie Lasa and Donal Coyne. Ruthie is the wife of my fraternity brother, Sisay Lasa, who was very kind to help out as the photographer for this memorable event. Donal is the managing partner of Steven Leach + Associates here in Bangkok, the company I work for. He is my boss, and my friend.



My wife, Kannitha, who is a Buddhist, tentatively makes the sign of the cross on Little Nio's forehead. Everyone who was there to witness his baptism was asked for a blessing by making the sign of the cross for him.



Here's Donal's wife, Khun Lek making the sign of the cross.



Never having been parents before, we both had to follow the script, reading out our lines and making sure we got things right.



Even good Irish Catholics like Donal had to make sure that he got his lines right. I think that we made excellent choices in inviting both Donal and Ruthie to stand as Little Nio's godparents.



Now comes the part with the water... where Nio starts freaking out.



Then the bit with the holy oil and chrism... and even more freaking out.



Then the part where he symbolically dons the white vestments, which Donal helps keep on him.



And then we have the part where a candle is lit to symbolize the light of his faith as a new born Christian... and a bit more freaking out.



This is a photograph with the parents and godparents. From left-to-right, Khun Lek (Donal's wife), Nio's father and mother (that would be me and my wife, Kanittha), the godfather Donal, and the godmother Ruthie carrying Nio, and finally, Sisay (the husband of Ruthie).



Now here's a group photograph of everyone who was able to attend.

From left-to-right, our very good friend Gerald Gonzalez, then Khun Ja Sirisamphan (daughter of Khun Chira), Donal Coyne, myself, Kanittha, Little Nio, Father Michael Picharn, Ruthie Lasa, and our friend Khun Chira Sirisamphan. Sisay Lasa was on the other side of the camera taking this photograph for us. Unfortunately, the daughter of Sisay and Ruthie, Cristel, who was also there was too shy to join us for this photo.

After the mass and the baptism, we all went together to have a long enjoyable lunch at Coffee Beans by Dao, which is very near the Church of the Holy Redeemer.



While everyone else is enjoying the lunch, Little Nio gets some quiet time with his wonderful fairy godmother, Tita Gerald. He's wearing a gold bracelet and a small gold crucifix. The bracelet was a gift from Kenny Marshall and the crucifix from my colleague at work, Khun Shanasit Thirakomen. You can see that Little Nio is all tired out and very happy to nap in the arms of Gerald.