Full Circle

In the darkness of the GEHS auditorium during one of GCT's final dress rehearsals, I held my son in my arms and let my tears flow down my cheeks and into his curly blond hair. I was overcome with a sense of gratitude in realizing that this story had come full circle.

I guess I should provide some background information.

Annie is the story of an orphan girl hoping her biological parents will come rescue her from the orphanage. The opening song of the show is entitled Maybe and it's Annie's longings to be someone's little baby.



I think the line that hits me the most in that song is "Betcha he reads, betcha she sews..." Since Erin and I do both of those things.

But after a nation-wide search and a large financial reward fail to bring Annie's biological parents back to her, she agrees to Oliver Warbuck's plan to adopt her into his family. A massive adoption party ensues at the Warbucks' mansion, complete with a Supreme Court Justice on hand to sign the papers. But before Judge Brandice can sign the papers, Annie's "parent's" show up. The following is a combination ("mash-up" to Gleeks) of the disappointment of both Annie and Warbucks.



With the Tony Award worthy acting of Jim Hurd, you can see the pain of losing Annie on Warbucks' face.



All of this to explain what happened to us in 2007. We were seriously considering adopting a baby boy and were spending time talking with the potential birth-mom. But then, the baby was still-born four months premature. You can read the more about it here.

A couple weeks after that event, we were watching some kids in the Culture House production of Annie and were blindsided by painful emotions of loss when Annie sat on her suitcase and sang "I was almost his baby." We had been so close, only to have it torn away form us in a tragic manner.

Now you can probably understand why hearing Annie sing "won't you please come get your baby" as I hold my miracle baby - you can read all about the miracle of Dawson's adoption here - would cause me to cry tears of gratitude, thankfullness and joy. I wasn't the only one, either. After one of the performances, Dawson's biological Grandma came up to me, with tears in her eyes as well and thanked me for "taking care of my baby."

And if you'd like to learn how to become adoptive or foster parents of other "babies", check out the Adopt Kansas Kids website.

Oh yeah, Annie ends with the realization those "parents" were fakes and Annie is adopted into the Warbucks family and the orphanage is adopted by the Warbucks estate.