Audrey was baptized on January 20, 2013. Back in the fall of 2012, she asked about why she had not been baptized and why she did not receive the bread and juice during communion. I told her about what it means to be a believer, to claim your faith, to decide that you want to follow Jesus. After several conversations, she shared, “You know I love God. I love Jesus in my heart. I want to be baptized.” And with that profession, I contacted our pastor for a date.
Now I am a Baptist at heart, and I had never envisioned that both my daughters would be baptized in the Methodist church. I had assumed our family would find a place among Baptists in South Carolina, but Baptists were not the family who welcomed us. Trinity United Methodist Church welcomed us with their worship, with their children’s ministries, and with the opportunity for me to participate by teaching Sunday school and leading in worship. We found our home at Trinity, and both my daughters found the words for professing faith at this church. So on January 20, the Trinity family celebrated Audrey’s baptism.
After the sermon, our pastor asked our family to stand with Audrey in front of banner which read, “Today God Spoke My Name–Audrey Irene.” Our pastor offered a prayer of blessing over the water and poured a generous amount into the font. And then, as our pastor and I had agreed, she asked Audrey these questions, “Do you believe in Jesus? Do you want to follow Jesus all your life? Do you want to be a part of this church?” With a determined and clear voice, Audrey answered, “I do” to each question. Rev. Jamieson-Ogg also asked Doug and me if we would nurture Audrey in her faith, and we agreed. Then, our pastor cupped water in her hands and poured the water over Audrey’s head as she said, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Our pastor asked the church if they would welcome Audrey in Christian love, and the church responded affirmatively. Then, as is the tradition at Trinity, the church serenaded Audrey. 
As she walked around the sanctuary, the congregation sang, “Audrey, Audrey, God claims you, God helps you, protects you and loves you too… And we this day to all agree a child of God you’ll always be.” After the blessing, Audrey received a baptism certificate and a candle, both to remind her of her baptism.
My prayer for Audrey during the baptism was that she would remember it, that she would recall the smiling faces singing words of assurance to her, that she would tell others of how cold the water was as it poured over her hair and face, and that she would remember the whimsy of the moment at which she waved at the choir and the entire adult choir waved back. I prayed that Audrey would have this moment of joyful acceptance in her memory so that it could sustain her when her faith felt distant or weak, and I prayed words of thanksgiving for the gift of church family that welcomed my child so wholeheartedly.
Audrey was baptized, and it was not at all like what I had pictured when she was an infant in arms. The experience was so much broader and richer than I could have imagined. And I am thankful.
Tammy Abee Blom is an ordained Baptist minister, regular contributor to BWIM’s blog, mother of two amazing daughters, teacher for children’s Sunday School, and lives in Columbia, South Carolina.