In the back of our minds we have been hoping to baptize Noah sooner than later. Jeff’s best friend from Kindergarden through adult hood is a Catholic priest in Seattle. He married Jeff and I, blessed our house after it was built 10 years ago, and he has baptized each of our kids. When we contacted him about Noah’s baptism he said the best date for him would be January 11. Looking at our calendar we realized how perfect a date that would. This week in Noah’s homeland the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is celebrating the holiday Timkat. Timkat honors the baptism of Jesus. This event is considered to be the most important holiday on the Ethiopian calendar. Noah was raised Orthodox Christian. He knows the story of Jesus. He knows Timkat. How wonderful that his Ethiopian faith world and his American faith world would come together for a very special afternoon.
When it came time to pick out what Noah should wear he and I opened up his closet on a quest...my quest was a bit different than his. When I told him we were picking out a nice outfit to wear I was focusing on black slacks and a white button-up shirt. Noah immediately focused on the formal dressing outfit I bought him in Addis. He pulled it out of the closet and asked in a hopeful voice, “Can I wear this?” It was perfect. It was symbolic. It was Noah.
The ceremony was special and Noah understood what was going on. He may not be able to express himself but he seemed to be familiar with the concept of baptisms. In all it was a wonderful afternoon. I have posted pictures on the Album page.
And now on to the real news of the weekend...Noah lost a tooth.
Saturday evening Noah and Nick were wrestling and one of his baby teeth got knocked loose. Oh dear...you'd think he was getting another round of immunizations. The screaming...yikes. Hannah and I whisk him down to the bathroom to asses the damage. It was loose, it was bleeding, he was wailing. All the boys were huddled in the bathroom to assist anyway they could...which really was no help at all because the bigger the audience the louder the wails. I kicked the boys out and locked the door. I could hear their worried whispering between breaths of Noah's moaning. (Yeah, you can say Oh Brother about now because the drama king was in da house) I told Hannah to sit criss-cross on the floor and have Noah lay his head on her lap so I could get a good look at the damage. So there we were...Hannah holding Noah on the floor while I took a look. I reached in to his mouth grabbed that tooth and ...'pluck'... in a very brief half second yanked that tooth out of his mouth. Then the screams again...OY. You'd think he had given birth and the after birth was on its way. I took the tooth in my hand, unlocked the door and was met by 3 very worried brothers on the other side. I proudly presented the tooth to them, exclaiming..."It's a boy," As quickly as I opened the door I shut and locked the door and tended to Noah once more. Sam, Nick, and Zak were busting up on the other side of the door. Noah finally calmed down enough (after Hannah and I explained the concept of the tooth fairy and she probably would be not come anywhere near our house because he was screaming so loud.) to come out of the bathroom to display the bloody hole where his tooth once occupied. Cheers erupted from this brothers and dad. When I exchanged the tooth for $1 that night while Noah was sleeping I took a long look at that tooth. I saved it. Why you ask...well...when you are a mom you celebrate every little thing in the first few years of life. I remember the smile Nick, Sam, and Hannah had when they had those first few baby teeth. Precious. Why in my heart do I think maybe Noah's mom rejoiced at his smile when he laughed a 4 tooth smile with the tooth he lost tonight. That one little tooth is my connection to his mom...it's all I have of her...well that tooth and Noah. : >)
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