A Dedication of Sorts - part one

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Well as always I have failed to keep pace with my blog entries but I do have a bit of an excuse and that is because it is summer. As you all know, summers are busy with vacationing, spending time with family, BBQ's and my favourite, garden parties.  Speaking of which we just had a very special party for our daughter Kyla.

Taking a bit of a non-traditional route we had Kyla dedicated in my mum's backyard surrounded by family and friends.  It was a very special day and we were so thrilled to be celebrating our love for Kai while showing our gratitude for this tiny life that we have been blessed with. When planning our ceremony we did a lot of research on the Internet for non-traditional baby ceremonies and we couldn't find too much but what we did find helped us out a great deal so I thought I'd add ours to the mix for those out there who might be searching as well.  Here is a copy of our full service.


My husband is a PhD student studying theological aesthetics - what is that you might ask, well it is better to ask him but in a quick sentence it is the relationship between beauty, art & God.  Even though he is a theological student we don't always fit into a certain box when it comes to our faith. So we decided rather then go the traditional route of baby baptism, christening or dedication (all part of the Christian faith) to
combine our beliefs and create a one-of the-kind
ceremony more personalized for Kyla.  We set out to celebrate love and new life!  


Although it was a daunting task to write out the ceremony ourselves it was a fabulous exercise for my husband and I to really think through our
hopes and dreams for Kai as well as our promises to her as her parents.

We centered the ceremony around the word Shalom which in Hebrew is a word for peace; as our friend/officiant Jeff quoted at the ceremony, “Shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness and delight... Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.” With this in mind we focused on six values - wholeness, love, peace, justice, creativity and restoration.  Our hope is Kyla would come to realize and experience these values in her own life and live them out as she grows.

Including Kyla's Godparents was really important to us as she is blessed to have wonderful Godparents who love her very much.  Kai's Godfather, Bill is Hindu and chanted three prayers for Kyla during the ceremony.  They were beautiful both in meaning and as they were chanted.  Kyla's Godmother, Christine, read to her from the famous Dr. Seuss book "Oh the Places You'll Go".  It was the perfect combination of spiritual and whimsy which is exactly why we chose them for their special role in Kai's life.






With readings and a very special song for Kai written by my husband which you can read here  the ceremony was beautiful and perfect for our little girl, who was also very well behaved.  We could not have asked for a better day and are so grateful to those who were able to share in it with us.

My next post - which will come soon, I promise is devoted to the fun stuff - the party!  Stay tuned!