Krštenje (Christening)

It has been 1 year since our friends, Dragana and Marinko, got their miracle baby, Ana. She is the result of the 10th try at IVF and in between the 9th and 10th try they spent 2 years trying to adopt before realising that wasn't going to happen either and deciding on "one last try". You can imagine how happy and excited we were for them when Ana was born!!!! 

As is common here, for her first birthday, she was also christened and to celebrate it all, there was a huge party! And during the celebrations there were many times we were all tearing up just at the thought of all they had been through to get this gorgeous, darling, sweet baby girl! 

We started at their house, before heading to the church for the ceremony there. She was so good, despite being "abused" by the Priest, and for it being her normal nap time, she hardly complained at all. 

At the ceremony, the "Kum" (Godfather) stands in her place and declares his surrender to Christ on her behalf, and then also his commitment to leading her in the way of faith. It was quite sweet because at the end the Priest even shared how important the "Kum" is in the Serbian Orthodox faith, and in fact how he now becomes just like a family member. And it was made even more poignant that their "Kum" is a neighbour who had lost his wife to cancer 2 years ago, and so his daughter was the "Kuma"  (Godmother). 

Here is a little taste of what some of the ceremony is like in an Orthodox church (Video Credit: Snjezana Vojnović):

As Ljilja was on her way back from Trebinje for this part, I was hanging out with my friends (and their neighbours), Tanja and her daughter, Snjezana. It worked out nicely as Tanja's husband, Damjan was travelling back from his folks, so I could be their transport to the church and back instead. 

Then it was time to party! In a tent in their garden: 

And my dad would have been proud, as they had a (very fancy) bouncy castle for all the kids: 

Here is just a snippet of the "kolo" (circular) dancing to give you a bit of the atmosphere: 

The "kolo", a range of traditional folk dances, is actually on the Unesco "Intangible Cultual Heritage" list. The one in the above video is the "Užička" from Užice, which is probably the "easiest". I remember the first time I got into the dance was at a friend's wedding and I saw this older man just going around moving his arms in the right way and not really caring what his legs were doing... so I thought "well I can do THAT" and got into it... But it isn't hard once you know what to do. (but unfortunately, my shoulder was too sore to get involved this time...) 

There was other kinds of dancing as well - here is a little snippet of the folk music style for you to enjoy: 

The music stopped long enough for us to enjoy a lovely meal of spit roast pork with all the trimmings :) And then it was time for the cake! 

Or should I say cakes!!!! We certainly had enough :)

Then it was time to celebrate some more this precious gift from God! She really is such a blessing!