Baptism and Brit Bat

When Aaron and I first talked about getting married, one topic that immediately followed was if we wanted children (which the answer was a resounding yes from both of us!). Along with that conversation came discussion about how we would raise our then-yet-to-be-conceived children. While Aaron doesn't consider himself particularly religious, I see that he greatly identifies with his Jewish heritage and culture. And though I don't attend a church regularly, Aaron sees that the foundation of my Lutheran beliefs are an important part of who I am. So we agreed that we would attempt to teach our children about both Christianity and Judaism, about how the two religions are connected, and about what it means to our family to observe traditions from both.

Fast forward a few years...

On Sunday, we invited our family to join us to take our first formal steps with us on our journey to educate our girls. We asked my Uncle Mike to perform a baptism ceremony and as part of the service we incorporated a Brit Bat led by Aaron. A Brit Bat is a naming ceremony where we explained the meaning of the girls names and gave them each a Hebrew name.

We reserved a space at a park in Marina Del Rey and about 35 family members joined us for the occasion. The service turned out even better than I had originally envisioned and we all enjoyed a picnic afterward.