Baptism

On Saturday evening, ours friends Kalliopi and Justin invited us to their nephew's baptism. It was at their local parish in Harilaou, and I was honored to serve along with Fr. Asterios, our spiritual grandfather, as it were (our spiritual father's spiritual father).

The babies enjoyed playing in the church's big courtyard, which is part of a larger complex that used to house an orphanage. In the photo above, you can see the friend that Phoebe made. He was a very sweet young boy who seemed like he may have been with the orphanage or with a Roma family. Anyway, he really took a liking to Phoebe and even gave her a little toy he had when we left.

After the baptism, we were invited to a dinner in a village area outside Thessaloniki, near the Monastery of St. Anastasia the Deliverer from Potions. Pelagia kindly offered to put the babies to bed by herself so that I could go with Justin and Kalliopi. We had a very nice meal outside. It was thundering a bit, so we moved to some tables underneath cover, but the weather held out and we had a nice time. In the photo above, you can see us moving tables. (It's not really a very good photo, but I didn't have any others.)

On Sunday afternoon, our friend Marianna invited us to attend a fundraising lunch for Asylo tou Paidiou, a non-profit organization dedicated to child care and development. In the photo above, you can see Pelagia and Phoebe dancing to the music that the kids were performing dances to in the background, while Paul and Benjamin serve as the audience.