Three Surnames

We dedicated Beckham Cruz in front of our church family (South Tampa Fellowship) on April 18th. It was such a sweet time for our family. My parents and Justin's sister (Natalie) flew in from DC for the service. Justin's parents and grandparents, our dear friends (the Codes and Nations) and our beloved church small group family were also there to celebrate with us.  (I'm very upset that I don't have pictures of everyone with him on that day.  I should have put someone in charge of that.  I'll do better next time...)

For the superficial specifics...
Beckham wore a light blue dupioni silk outfit that my mom made for him along with a bonnet that Justin would have rather done without!

I was petrified my son would spit up in front of the entire church congregation. Mama Nations came to the rescue and made this beautiful heirloom bib for him (it has a little boy embroidered on it) and a matching burp cloth. It was the perfect accessory to his sweet outfit.

For the more meaningful specifics...
Our son has three surnames - English, Spanish and Italian! Maybe he'll be trilingual. :) There is nothing special about the name Beckham, except that we really liked it. We actually didn't name him after the soccer star, but it is quite appropriate that Justin loves soccer. He's continuing to live up to his name (since he was Frank Breech in utero).

His middle name is what has significance to us. Cruz is my maiden name. Long ago we decided that if we ever had a son his middle name would be Cruz. My parents only had daughters so there's no one to carry on the family name. However, all three of us girls have used Cruz as our middle names since we married because we didn't have one.

His middle name also has deep spiritual significance to us. It means "cross of Christ" and it's our prayer that one day Beckham would "take up his cross daily and follow Him" (Luke 9:23).

Beckham: someone who lived beside a stream
Cruz: Spanish for the cross of Christ
Pullaro: from Sicilian puddara denoting a plant of the pimpernel family (I wasn't sure what that was, so I googled it. Here's a picture for you visual people like me.)

Later that day, we celebrated Beckham's dedication with a family dinner at Nick and Suzette's house. They were so sweet to host this dinner for us - as tax season ended only three days before.

Thank God for mothers - she worked tirelessly to help me get everything ready and make it a special dinner for Beckham.

The food was amazing! My dad grilled fajitas and brisket and Papaw grilled chicken and ribs.  (Once again, only have pictures of the food and not them.  Ugh!)

 

My dad (Papi) and Beckham in their matching seersucker outfits!

For the dessert table, Suzette made an amazing carrot cake and chocolate chip cookies.  We also had chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese and strawberry frosting and some homemade chocolate peanut brittle. 

My mom and I made some cake pops (from scratch) and used them as the centerpieces for the tables.  My friend Kristin came to visit the night before and I put her artistic talents to work - she hand painted five clay pots (freehand) with a cross and Beckham's monogram.  It's amazing what people can do at one o'clock in the morning!

Finley loved them!!! 

Thank you to all of you who have and will come along side Beckham in the years to come and encourage him to follow Christ and grow in a deep relationship with Him.