The Baptism of Aidan Tianzhen Onken

Here's Lily and Aidan getting ready for church today, where Aidan was received into God's kingdom through the sacrament of Holy Baptism. He was given the new birth through water and the Word and was forgiven of all his sins. We fully expected a freak out at the font, but it didn't happen. Julie lifted Aidan so that his face was looking toward the water. I poured the water on his head, and he started to giggle. It was a moment of pure joy, even though he probably thought he was simply having his hair washed. Good thing he likes baths.

It's always a privilege to be the hands that deliver this precious washing to anyone, both child and adult. But it's a special honor to baptize your own children. As it was with Lily, so it was with Aidan. I had a hard time choking back the tears, especially this time when it came time to ask his sponsor the questions in the baptismal liturgy. He and I have been friends almost since birth. (Two of Aidan's other sponsors were not able to be present.)


After the baptism and brief naps for the kids, we had a small gathering of family and friends at the house. Aidan and Lily wanted to play out back, and we let them, seeing as it was a warm day here in the Northwest.

Below you can see Aidan dragging our "sidewalk chalk" wagon. He eventually pulled it into the grass, the same grass which he was skittish about walking on yesterday. We took him outside and realized he had probably never seen nor walked on a lawn before. He stopped at the edge of the slab and would not step out onto the grass. He just looked at it and giggled. I finally had to pick him up and set him down in the grass. He didn't freak out, but it was obviously an entirely new sensation for him.

Tomorrow we head back to the doctor's office, or as Aidan calls it, the hellish torture chamber. We took him there on Friday to have him examined by our wonderful pediatrician. She ordered a lot of labwork to test for various conditions, so that required a lot of needle poking and blood drawing. Needle-less to say, this didn't go over well. The poor little guy was traumatized. We'll see how he responds tomorrow when we approach the front door of the office.