Ethan’s Baptism

Last Sunday, we had Ethan baptized in a special service in the afternoon so people from all of our churches could be invited, and both Randy and I could be there. 🙂

We were grateful that both sets of Ethan’s grandparents were able to be with us. (Randy’s parents traveled from Tennessee just for the weekend, bringing two of Ethan’s cousins he had not yet met.)

For the baptism Ethan wore the traditional Korean dress called a hanbok that he received as a gift from his foster family in Korea. It is very colorful. And as you can see in the picture below, boys wear pink!

It was meaningful to celebrate this event in Ethan’s life with our church families, Manor Hill Charge and 12th Street and Hope. They have been with us through the journey into parenthood and helped pray Ethan into our lives. It was also special to have our District Superintendent, Dave Norris, to officiate. He and his wife Jean have been supportive and shared the joy of this life-changing event.

The service was to include a slideshow to the song “You’ve Given Life to Me.” See Randy’s post, The Missing Slideshow, for details, and to view the slideshow.

The Faith UMC Choir sang “How Great is Our God” which was a special selection they sung for me right before we left for Korea to get Ethan. We included the congregational song, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” a congregational song from our wedding, too.

We played a recording of the World Vision Korea Children’s Choir singing in English and Korean, “Lord, I Want to Be a Christian” (see last year’s post on this choir’s concert in Huntingdon). And Open Timbre, a bluegrass group from Faith UMC, sang “The Blessing.”

Another special touch was the use of the Statement of Faith of the Korean Methodist Church in place of the Apostle’s Creed. We also used the ceramic pitcher and bowl that my grandmother (Ethan’s maternal great grandmother) had painted.

There was a good bit of music, but I like music! And so does Ethan. Ethan was a bit wiggly through a lot of the service, except when the music was playing! Now that he’s walking he wants down to get around.

Following the service, the Manor Hill churches provided a farewell reception. Joann, who (along with her husband, Dick) babysits Ethan on Sunday mornings, baked and decorated a beautiful baptism cake for the occasion.

We are grateful for this special day in our lives and in life of Ethan. We believe baptism to be a way in which we experience God’s grace. As an infant, Ethan can do nothing to achieve salvation. So it is with us all. God offers it freely.

Now we pray that Ethan will grow up to accept and claim this free gift of God as his very own.

Images from the day (the first one taken with our camera, and the other 3 by Ethan’s two grandmothers) …