There were two main events that Oma and Opa came to see; Nick getting the priesthood, and Sophie’s baptism. Even though she turned eight almost a whole month earlier, she agreed to wait until Oma and Opa could be there to get baptized. Sunday, September 26th it was finally time! That morning in church, the children had given their yearly Primary Presentation for Sacrament meeting. Sophie and Sarah both gave excellent talks, and Sophie’s just happened to be on Baptism. 🙂 (Mama will admit to a bit of finagling, there.)
That afternoon, we went to the old Zurich Stake Center, which is the nearest baptismal font until our new church building gets completed next year. Actually, I need to back up. So the font is huge, right? Takes 2 hours to fill. Which means someone has to go early to fill it up. John offered to go, and I sent a bunch of vegetables along for Angie to cut while they waited. Nicholas also went with them, so we would have enough room in our car to give Sophie’s Primary teacher a ride. She really wanted her there.
I stayed home, madly cutting up fruit, baking bread, and whipping up cookies for the party afterward. Fortunately, I had already baked the banana and zucchini bread earlier in the week and frozen them. Unfortunately, they and the meat slices for the sandwiches were STILL frozen when it was time for the Imbiss. sigh. Too much to do, in too short a time, with too little help, gets you results like that. Oh well. Sophie didn’t seem to notice, and since she was the guest of honor, I am calling it good. But I am ahead of myself.
So, the font needs to be filled. But it’s been a long time since Opa drove to the Stake Center, and he’s never done it from our house. Good thing he has a GPS in his car. Too bad it led him on a crazy, twisted, completely convulted tour of downtown Zurich, rather than just taking him on the freeway from our house to the Stake Center. So rather than arriving 2 hours ahead to fill the font, they get there only about 1 hour ahead, and to top it off, the door to the font was locked, as well as to the kitchen. Can you feel how my stress level was pretty much soaring through the ceiling, right about now? I had been going and going and going and going for about 2 weeks straight now, without any let up, and now this? So yes, I had a lovely little breakdown, complete with high-pitched shrieking, some foot-stomping, and an Amy classic, the hurtling of innocent objects across the room. (Although never anything breakable. I am too practical for that. ha) Oh and a few tears. Can’t forget the tears.
Just as I was trying to figure out how to best inform everyone that the baptism would not be taking place at the proposed time, but perhaps a few hours later, Opa called back to say that they had figured out another way into the font, and it was already full of water. Also, Chris had called someone to come unlock the rest of the doors, and he was already on his way. So now, I just had to find the @#$%#! barrettes I had specially ordered from America to make Sophie’s baptismal barrettes with flowers I had crocheted myself, just for the purpose. But even that was taken care of, when my friend, M. called to see what she could bring to the baptism just at that moment and I could unload my woes onto her. She said she had some really pretty white flower barrettes Sophie could wear, if needed. She would bring them just in case I didn’t ever find mine. Thank you!
I did eventually find the barrettes, but doing so had taken quite a bit of time, and I still had to french braid her hair, get everything loaded up, and get us over to the church. So, despite the font already being filled, the baptism was still almost 30 minutes late starting. Fortunately, R. played the piano beautifully the whole time, and no one left, thinking I had played a big practical joke on them. Whew!
The baptism itself was very lovely. Oma gave a great talk on baptism, and then Chris baptized Sophie. Twice. Because he got confused and said the prayer wrong. 🙂 No one caught it at first, but Opa pointed it out after just a little bit. So back down into the now cold water Sophie went. You see, the font was already filled because there had been another baptism there earlier that day. But the water had completely cooled by the time we needed it. So the Charles tradition of baptizing our kids in frigid cold water holds true! At least it will help them always remember the day.
Since I didn’t have time before the baptism to slice up all the bread, or lay out all the food beautifully on trays, people had to wait a bit for the Imbiss to start. But you know those awesome friends I have mentioned before in other posts? 
Well, they were awesome once more and just jumped right in; arranging food, grabbing plates and cups, filling water pitchers, all without me saying much of anything. We were quite the whirlwind in the kitchen, for about 10 minutes, and then all the work was done, and everyone could just relax and enjoy the party. Well, except for the people who stayed and helped replenish the trays and drinks. 
After all the stress of the past few days, and my little freak out, the Lord totally took care of me through amazing friends who just kept filling in the ranks around me, protecting me on all sides, from any little problem that dared to show its head. 
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Ladies. I am getting teary eyed just thinking about it again. It meant so, so much to me. Why do I love living in Switzerland so much? You all have a big part in the reason why.
Sophie received the Holy Ghost from her Opa, which was also very special, and I am so glads they were here to see it. Would have been lovely to have my parents here as well, but I know they were in spirit. It ended up being a wonderful experience, and I am so proud of Sophie for making this big decision. Love you, sweetie!