So, we had the epitomy of a family night on Saturday; it was honestly a blast to do. Steven Curtis Chapman played Decatur on Saturday night. He’s a huge advocate for adoption and has setup Shaohannah’s Hope, an agency who gives out grants for those wanting to adopt. During his shows he’s been asking people to bring in change to donate for grants. Shaohannah’s Hope shared the night with America World Adoption Agency, our adoption agency. So, the three of us volunteered to staff the booth that night and while Melissa sat at the booth with the others, Aidan and I walked around with a bucket and collected change. It was hillariously fun.

First, it was a fun environment for Aidan to be Aidan. You can imagine that a pro-adoption evening that cute little four year olds running around would be smiled at. Aidan was hillarious. He was a little nervous and unsure about holding the bucket at first, but ended up warming up to the idea, even wanting to hand out brochures at points as well. He would hide the bucket and at one point even walked up to a person and said ‘hi, I’m helping Daddy collect! We’re poor!’

The show itself was good. Chapman’s definately in the camp of Michael W. Smith for me in that I really never considered myself an avid fan, but I know a bit of the music and it’s singable and we own a few CDs and this was a very good show. He’s got a good stage presence, the production value is good and it’s creative. Fans had the opportunity to text in requests at the show and he performed a few.

The sell for adoption was cool as well. It was encouraging to hear his heart for it and to see the family at the end that got the grant. They looked genuninely appreciative of the opportunity and it was fun to see them get it. I really appreciated Chapman’s sense of ‘celebrity as currency’ and he spends his currency very well in promoting adoption and supporting those who choose to do so.

So, the big story for the night was Aidan and I after the show went down to the stage to watch the loadout and the drummer, Wil, graciously saw Aidan and passed on his drumsticks that he used that night. A friend of his came up and handed the drumsticks to Aidan and said ‘These are yours, enjoy!’ It was really kind and made Aidan’s night (as soon as I explained to him that he scored a set of sticks from a show) and he was really proud of the fact that he got them. Aidan took a look at the splintered, dimpled sticks and said ‘He pounded on these!’

(Aidan with his new sticks)