The Missing Posts - Mia's Baptism

Baptisms are special events for our family. It seemed like I added 40 gray hairs trying to coordinate Sasha's baptism. Between Grandparents and Godparents, finding a weekend that worked for all was tough. So, imagine my surprise when we happened upon a date in August where both Godparents were available. The magic day was August 24th. We decided to once again use Godfather Bryan's church in Chicago.

I'll admit that I was a bit leary of the baptism. Bryan's church isn't air conditioned and no amount of telling me which building materials were used in the santuary construction was going to make me believe that it would be cool in August without air conditioning. We loaded into the car with double clothes for all the munchkins and Grandmother Kathryn safely tucked into Karen and Vic's car. We were off.

About halfway there, Sasha started complaining about how hungry he was. We had a huge breakfast but that didn't seem to ward off his starvation. I, having thought to bring back up everything, forgot to bring snacks. I used my phone-a-friend to Bryan and asked if he had any snack foods that he could bring to the church. Of course, asking a bachelor if he has munchkin snack food was dicey but he said he would try to find something appropriate. Ultimately he brought cheerios and biscotti which Sasha was delighted with. He LOVES biscotti. Yes, once again, you can totally tell that Sasha is my son. He's three but there's simply no reason for him to not start his culinary education. I promise that his future wife will never be able to tell me that he doesn't know how to cook.

We made it to the church, hustled everyone in and waited in an office for our consultation with the pastor. After our consult, we made our way down to the playroom to wait for our big moment. We were to make our entrance during a particular song. As the song began, my shoe dissentigrated. Seriously, the entire top part of my shoe completely detached from the bottom part. There was no amount of walking carefully that was going to keep this shoe on my foot. I know Jesus was barefoot at times but surely my lack of shoes wasn't going to be well received. I had brought an extra pair of shoes for myself (which I never do) but had left them in the car. Nathan sprinted out of the church and down the couple of blocks to our car and back. There was no way he could make it by the end of the song. I watched barefooted from the church doorway as the pastor kept motioning for me to come down to the altar where my Aunt, our son and our daughter stood by the baptismal fount. Ugh. Bryan whispered in the pastor's ear that we were having a slight challenge and that we would be ready shortly. He continued onto another piece of the program and Nathan finally made it back with a pair of shoes that were in one piece and we joined our family on the front pew.

Beyond wardrobe malfunctions and sans air conditioning, I was a bit nervous about Mia's reaction to the whole 'water on the forehead' deal. I mean this is a girl who avoids water at all costs. She shrieks in pain if you flick water in fun on her as she walks by in the kitchen. How loud would she scream when a lot of water was intentionally poured onto her head? Would the combination of her pitch and the lack of air conditioning make people flea from the church?

When the pastor asked us to join him in front, Mia started shrieking. She was none to pleased that the paper that she had been playing with were no longer available to her. We finally gave her a donation envelope to hold and she was satisfied. A group of children were asked to come up and join us.

At some point, the pastor took Mia and laid her back while pouring water onto her forehead. Let me tell you this wasn't a few drops this was more like an entire glass full. I waited for the inevitable tears this was sure to evoke. They didn't come. Huh? Who was this little girl and what had they done with Mia??? As the water ran across her head, her hair started curling up into little ringlets. The girl has great hair. Mia did really well and her outfit seemed so perfect for the occasion.

We took photos afterwards and made our way to Wildfire for a lovely lunch. Mia was honored with a brownie sundae which she and Sasha enjoyed. Fortunately, I had changed her into a luncheon outfit so she wouldn't get fudge sauce all over her beautiful baptism outfit. If I could feed our kids in just a diaper and hose them off after every meal, I would!

All in all, despite my wayward shoe, the baptism and lunch afterwards was lovely. It was nice that my grandmother, a retired Methodist minister, could join us for the occasion.