During our first full weekend in the States we headed to New Jersey to see Paul’s family and attend the baptism of our nephew. Though I missed the Brazilian dinner Paul’s brother and his fiancé made on Friday night, I heard great things about it. We’ll have to have a cook-off one of these days! Saturday brought more time with family and more great food. “Pah, pah, pah, Paul” – It didn’t work. The baby is still too young to pronounce the letter P, much less say Paul. Maybe next time.
The reception for the baptism was before nighttime the Mass and once all of the guests were there, Paul’s sister told us she wasn’t 100% sure the Mass was going to be in English! Ha ha. It was…and it wasn’t. Half of the songs and half of the readings were in English. The gospel and homily were done in both English and Spanish. And the baptism was only in Spanish. I was translating for Paul’s cousin which is pretty difficult given that I haven’t spoken Spanish in a year. The church was packed and the mass was…long (3 hours). After the part and the after-party, we went back to the hotel to hang out with Paul’s siblings.
As I write about this all now I don’t know how we had the energy to do it all, but when you only have limited time back home with everyone you just subtract and hour of sleep and add a cup of coffee, and somehow it all works out.
