Baptism Weekend

We made it! Pauline's first road trip was a complete success. Tim, Grandpa Chuck, Pauline, Minka, and Mommy drove from Berlin to Muenster on Friday (week 4 - time is starting to go by very fast!). It's normally a 4 to 4.5-hour drive; we stopped twice to feed Pauline, but she handled most of the trip like a trooper. She was fussy once we got to our hotel, even after eating, so we set out for dinner, which entailed a long stroll once with Mommy and another with Daddy. The reward, however, for her fussy afternoon and evening was that she slept that night for darn near 8 hours straight. We'll take it!

Saturday morning we set off after breakfast for a stroll around the old city. We headed to the open-air market, which is one of the largest in Germany. Pauline seemed to enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells; Minka and I decided to sit it out, after the umpteenth person tapped me on the shoulder to remind me that dogs aren't allowed in the market. We whiled away the afternoon waiting to hear from Father Boecker, who'd said he would call in the evening and wanted to meet with us at that point. Pauline and I took yet another walk in the late afternoon so Tim could get some rest, and when we got back to the hotel, Caroline and Antoine had arrived. Caro is my former college roommate; her son Antoine is like my godson, and the two of them are very close to me. We're incredibly moved that they drove up from Lausanne, Switzerland in a whirlwind weekend just to meet Pauline. Anyway, Tim, Pauline, and I set off shortly after that for Schoeppingen, and indeed, Father Boecker called while we were on our way. Our meeting with him took longer than we'd expected, but we outlined the baptism ceremony, and he gave me copies of at least some of the texts he'd be using so I could interpret them into German for Chuck and Tim. Back to Muenster (it's about a half-hour each way) for dinner at the Pinkus brewery - Pauline was harder to get to sleep, but got a solid 6 hours once she fell asleep.

Sunday morning we woke up, fed the baby, got ourselves dressed, got breakfast, and left for Schoeppingen. Pauline was an angel during Mass - it took a bottle and a bit of rocking, but she liked the singing especially. (I can't wait to see what she does with a Methodist service...) She was so calm that I was able to get her into her baptismal gown during Mass, so she was ready to go. Her gown was the same one worn by her Grandma Liz (Tim's mom), her uncle Tom, and her cousin Rosie. She also wore a bracelet from her godparents, a baptismal ring from Chuck and Beth, and a gold cross of mine that once belonged to her namesake, my mother's godmother. We held her in a lovely white silk blanket that was another gift from her godparents.

The ceremony was a lovely one, with lots of reference to the special nature of the occasion - that Pauline was returning to the home of her ancestors. Pauline didn't cry or fuss at all when she was baptized - a moment which Antoine captured on video for us. We were joined for the ceremony by my friend Beate, a colleague from the Embassy who comes from another town near Muenster and who helped us to contact the priest last fall to arrange the baptism. Beate's mother also joined us, which was neat. Other guests included the members of the local historical society we met in February, and Renate Klitz, a very distant Klitz cousin who had been in contact with Tim and Chuck years ago. Though she'd fallen out of contact, she saw the article in the local paper about our visit in February and wrote to Chuck to ask if she could come for the baptism. It was really neat to meet her and her husband, and of course, wonderful that Pauline could be surrounded by so many friends for this important occasion. We were also joined by another distant Klitz relation, who'd e-mailed us after seeing the article in the local newspaper, and by a reporter from the paper. Stay tuned for yet another media appearance by our daughter.

After the ceremony, we invited everyone to lunch in Eggerode, the smaller town outside Schoeppingen which is actually closer to the Klitz family's farmstead. The hotel/restaurant put on a great spread for us, with lots of typical Muensterland foods. Caro and Antoine had to leave after lunch to get back to Lausanne, but it was so wonderful of them to come. After lunch, the rest of us strolled to the Klitz family farmstead, where Chuck, Tim, Renate, and Pauline posed for a picture on the Klitz Bridge, and Chuck took some soil from the plot of land his ancestors once farmed. Mr. Schulze Sievert, the descendant of the landowners who employed the Klitzes, invited us to walk over to his farm, which is just adjacent to the Klitz plot of land. He and his wife had us in for coffee, and we got to continue our conversations about emigration, history, farming... all sorts of things. Tim and I both thought when we met the members of the historical society in February that Chuck would have loved to talk to them, and we were so happy that he had the chance to do so. It was such a special day.

We went back to Muenster around 6 that evening. Pauline had been perfect all day, but by then was worn out and fussing. My sainted husband took her and Minka for a walk around 8:30, to let me get some rest; I didn't hear them come back, or much of anything else until Pauline woke up around 6. (I think there may have been a middle-of-the-night feeding in there, but I slept through it.) Monday morning we packed, got breakfast, and headed out. Our angel was great on the ride home, just to cap off a wonderful weekend.