Last Saturday, Sarah was baptized. Saturday evening baptisms are unusual, but we scheduled a time other than Sunday morning so that both of us, as well as people from both of our congregations, could attend (Ethan’s Baptism took place on a Sunday afternoon).
Sarah did well. Ethan was wired, thanks in part to skipping his daily nap. As I wrote in Ethanisms 2.0, he was overheard saying, at the outset of his nap, “Hmm. Should I go to sleep? No. There’s someone else in the house.”
Both Ethan and Sarah were sent home with us from Korea with gifts of hanboks (“Korean clothing”) from their respective foster families. Koreans wear hanboks, traditional Korean clothing, for special occasions (prior to the influence of Western clothing about a century ago, they were commonly worn).
Sarah wore her hanbok for the first time at her baptism just as Ethan had done. Ethan wore his for the second time last Saturday, nearly two years after his baptism (both hanboks were big; Ethan’s still barely fit). Actually, we weren’t sure he’d actually wear his hanbok. For almost as long as we’ve had Sarah, he’s associated pink with Sarah’s clothes!
There were similarities with the service we planned for Ethan’s baptism, such as the use of the statement of faith of the Korean Methodist Church and a song called, “I Was There To Hear Your Borning Cry.” Also, in both cases, we asked someone else (our respective district superintendents) to officiate so that we could be parents, not pastors. For Sarah’s baptism, Rev. Dr. Pam Ford, State College District Superintendent, offered the message and conducted the baptism.
There were also a couple differences, thanks to Ethan. One of the songs we chose was “You Never Let Go,” one of Ethan’s favorite songs (it was the music we used for the music video we made for Ethan for our trip to Korea to get Sarah last October).
And more significantly, Ethan got to help in Sarah’s baptism by dipping his hand in the water and touching Sarah’s head. Even though he was wired and very busy, when it came time to help baptize Sarah, he was focused and on task. Ethan enjoyed it. We learned that he told people in Sunday school the next morning, “I helped baptize Sarah!”
Here are some photos from the special evening. Thanks to Russell Unick for taking these photos!