Almi's Baptism

On Thanksgiving day, surrounded by family, I dedicated Almi back to God. It was a wonderful service and I loved having it in the intimacy of my parent's living room. It was perfect. Let the pictures tell the story:



Highlights:

* having my cousin Chaz officiating
* doing a Ring Shout*
* having so many family members there to celebrate with us
* both of us wearing beautiful Ethiopian dresses I personally selected when traveling
* Almi clasping her hands in prayer
* being photographed with the 100yr old family Christening gown
* the informality of it which allowed for unique moments such as:
- Almi going up and down on a stool saying "up, down, up down"
- her impromptu playing of the piano
- when my dad said his prayer for her she shouted something back to him
- when we broke out into the spiritual, Amen! Almi sang and danced with us
- seeing her go back to the Holy water after the service and putting more and more on her forehead (and some on mine)
- feeling the Love in the room: love of tradition, love of family, love of God

* A Ring Shout is a religious ritual performed by African slaves. They would stand in a circle and sing, dance, stomp, clap or speak in whatever way the Spirit moved them. For our service, we went around in a circle with each person sharing a few words about Almi. I started with a few words that were given to me in Addis from her Ethiopian mother, then family shared and concluded with me fighting back tears as I read a letter I had written just for my sweet girl. It was very special and made our first Thanksgiving together very, very memorable indeed.