the Hopeful

When we first adopted our Charlotte... she was completely nonverbal. She didn't speak any Ukrainian or Russian... Her room in the orphanage was right beside the music room. When we were walking her back to her room during one of our visits, just as we passed the music room, she started humming a sweet tune to us. She was in perfect pitch. It completely warmed our hearts to hear her voice for the first time. Language came over the months following... and it became evident that this girl had an amazing talent with her beautiful singing voice. We found out when she was homeschooled in Kindergarten that she needed hearing aids for her sensori-neural hearing loss. We were completely blown away by the fact that she was on pitch, even with having a hearing loss... in both ears! People have told us throughout the years that this girl needed to be part of a choir, and to have voice coaching/lessons. When the opportunity presented itself, that she could join a chorus... I plugged her right in. The very first time she practiced and came home, she announced to me, "Mom, I found 'my people'... " with a huge smile beaming across her face.

Her first concert was 2 weekends ago... The Christmas Concert. Marley and I created a bravo bouquet just for her. It was full of roses (because they're Charlotte's favorites), and tied up with fancy strings. Not sure what possessed me... but I really believed that the kids would do alright watching Charlotte perform. I was little disillusioned... optimistic... hopeful. We made our way to the chapel where it was held, and immediately began trying to figure out how we were going to make it through a performance where every little tiny human was melting down over something different. In the end, we sent Daddy home with all the littles...thankful to him for handling the littles so I could stay to listen to the rest of the concert (it was 2 hours long!) with my sister in law, Courtney... ate a quick cookie during the reception that followed, and took a Lyft home after that. It was the craziest thought... that we could all "enjoy" Charlotte's singing... and maybe in a few years, we will be able to. I'm not losing hope... Call me Karen... Karen the Hopeful.