Choir of Hope

We took our kids to church last night for the World Hope Children of the World Choir performance. Children from all over the world, most orphaned and sponsored through pledges, entertain with a singing and dancing performance using English and native dialects singing praise and worship songs with a tribal flare for awareness and, naturally, fund-raising. We thought it would be great to take the kids to the performance to teach them. We thought seeing kids sing first-hand and explaining the situation from which these kids emerged would be meaningful, yet fun for the boys.

As with most circumstances in life with my boys in which I go with an expectation, my expectations were not met.

Here are some of the phrases uttered by either boy last night during the performance:

1. Ugh. This is embarrassing.
2. What language are they speaking? Me: “English.” What is English?
3. This is WAY too much kid singing
4. They KEEP singing the same thing (during How Great is Our God)
5. Can I go to bed now?
6. Are we standing because it is time to go? (during the only time they asked us to stand and sing with them)
7. Can I have a drink from the shop outside?
8. No. (When asked by the nice lady behind us as we were leaving if they liked the show)
9. Mom, you better get your money ready this time, here comes that bag again. (I already had my money ready anyway. That was part of the reason I wanted to go.)
10. Oh mom, do they know Jacob B? (a little boy in Gavin’s class adopted from Asia)
11. Did they get new moms and dads yet? (after the video explaining that many children are left orphaned due to AIDS)
12. Can I get baptized so I can go swim in that tank like that girl did earlier?
13. 1,2,3,4,5,6…(counting the ceiling lights during the finale)
    
    

Somehow I thought it would mean more to the boys. I really did. I was wrong. Brian thought I was crazy. He was right.

KEEP BELIEVING