Baptism

Today Audrey is 18 months old and the day she was baptized at our church, Pilgrim Chapel.

At church in the dress we bought in Guangzhou.

She cheered and clapped after each song.  So the congregation followed her lead... well they just clapped.

And made everyone laugh.

Both of our ministers, Reverend Jameson and Croskery performed the ceremony.  Dick did the actual baptism with water from the River Jordan in Israel.  It was some of the last of the water he brought home from a trip he and Ruth took in the 80's.

At the altar Audrey wanted to be held by myself or John and  then hugging and loudly narrating "HUG". She was not the least bit intimidated  of the extra attention.

Fortunately she was solemn when it counted.  When Dick laid his wet hand on her forehead she focused her attention and was quiet.

She really killed the congregation when she blew a kiss to them right after her baptism.

In this next picture you can see the jade necklace we bought for her in China. 

She was just so genuinely happy. 

Our church is small and attendance is even sparser in summer.  So Molly and Charlie M. were the only other 2 kids at church this Sunday..  In the picture above Molly and Audrey are just about to hug.  Right after this Audrey fell and hit her head pretty hard.  It scared her and was really the only trauma that day fortunately.

Lunch.

Pictures outside before Audrey and I walked home so she could take a nap.  Baba stayed to clean up.

Dick and Audrey.  At this point she was about an hour past her normal nap so she was getting tired. 

With sweet Auntie Paula.   Throughout the service today Audrey would randomly and loudly call out Paula'a name.

Our ministers did such a beatuful baptism for Miss Audrey.  This included the following insert in the church bulliten:

Audrey Lu He's arrival as a member of the Nuckels family was long anticipated!  Her parents, John and Roberta (Bertie) Wininger Nuckels were married in Pilgrim Chapel in 2002.  John and Bertie waited 4 1/2  years for the China Center for Adoption Affaris to notify them that they could come to China for Audrey.  The received pictures and information about Zhuang Lu ("road") He ("celebration") on September 29, 2010.  She was 7 months old.  John and Bertie traveed to China the first week in December.  Audrey officially became a family member December 5.  She was made an American Citizen upon her arrival December 16, when her plane landed at O'Hare airport in Chicago.

Audrey's traditional white dress was one of the dresses bought for her in Guangzhou (formerly Canton), China.  She is wearig a jade necklace from Guangzhou.  In China, jade is more special than pearls or diamonds.  Many Chinese men and women wear jade necklaces with which to display their Zodiak signs.  Audrey last wore this jade necklace when she was blessed by a monk at the Six Banyan Buddhist Temple, december 12.  Today, Audrey is exactly 18 months old.

By way of background, China instituted a "one child per family" policy in 1979.  Since 1989 150,000 children born in China have been adopted by parents in other countries.  Some 80,000 are now Americans.  these young Americans live throughout the country, with all 50 states represented.

Applications to adopt are reviewed by the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA), CCAA is a branch of the Ministry of Civil Affairs which oversees all orphanages within China.  Both domestic and internation adoption orphanages provide documentation on children to CCAA.  Before coming to the USA, Audrey  resided in Yifeng SWI in Jiangxi Province in Southeast China.  *

This year at the Sundance Festival, SOMEWHERE BETWEEN a documentary film about 4 American teenagers who had been adopted from China won a Hot Docs award.

*  Some of the information I provided re: CCAA got miscommunicated as CCAA handles only international adoptions not domestic too. 


I walked Audrey home (in the stroller or as she calls it the "wee") after lunch.  Fortunately she did not fall asleep on the 6 block walk home as there was a hummingbird in our front garden and I was able to point it out to her.  I mentioned seeing this to John and Paula later and just as we were talking about another female hummingbird we all saw another female hummingbird on the back deck hovering around the planter.  This prompted us, just for giggles to look online for any meanings.  Some of the references we found for hummingbird meanings were : "timeless joy", "teach how to find miracle of joyful living" and "stands for immortality".

After her nap Paula, Audrey and I went to the Art Museum.  Paula bought this little book called What is Mona Lisa Feeling for Audrey.  On the walk home we noticed what looked like a bug bite on her left hand and that it was quite swollen.

Once again Paula found a way to keep A occupied (she is washing her magnetic letters in the bowl) while Paula held an ice cube on her left hand.

After dinner we tried to make a handprint on this canvas frame to commemorate the day. It was comical how much we failed and also how Audrey put up with our many attempts to get a decent print. 

Another failure.  Fortunately the paint washed out easily.

Then we decided hand prints just weren't going to work so we decided to try feet.  This picture shows our first failure.

 More failures.

And finally the one we kept.  Hopefully by the next milestone we will improve.

Email we rec'd Saturday 8/13/11 from Reverend Croskery:

I have a certificate attesting to Audrey's baptism.  I'll bring it Sunday.

Audrey was just wonderful.  So many children her age are frightened by such an event and demonstrate their fears.  Audrey "played to the house."  EVERYONE was captivated.  And this added an element of joy to the sacred ceremony.

Look forward to seeing you.

Bob