One

I am a huge U2 fan...have been one forever.  U2 was introduced to me by my brother Tim , a musician, back in my high school years.  Tim had a wanderlust spirit and in his late teens and early 20's chose to live a lifestyle as such.  He traveled to the east coast on a few occasions with his band and would come back with fantastic stories of life on the road.  One such story from the early '80s is the time he came back from Chicago and told me, "Do not forget this group or this name...these guys are going to be BIG."  He  told me about how he and his band hung out with this band from Ireland after one of their gigs. The lead singer's name...Bono.  The band...U2. 

 

So how does this tie in with Noah  you ask...just wait.

Fast forward to the year 2000.  New neighbors moved in.  Wonderful kind people originally from Ireland. As time went on the mom of the family, Melissa, and I became fantastic friends. She too was a fan of U2...but for a different reason.  Melissa grew up outside of Dublin.  She was very much into the arts and theatre of her school.   Going to that very same secondary school was a young man named Paul Hewson...Bono.  Melissa was in a play with Paul and even had the original playbill and a photograph of the cast.  Oh, and she would ride the bus with U2 bassist Adam Clayton.

So...how does this tie in with Noah you ask...just wait.

While we were preparing for our adoption through Ethiopia we were introduced to the beautiful words of Bono through the book On the Move.  His words, based upon his 2006 speech to the National Prayer Breakfast where he spoke to leaders of all the faiths, are inspiring and powerful.  The images are photos he took himself while visiting Ethiopia in the mid '90s.  The boy on the cover errily looks like our son Noah.   It is one book we should all possess and read in our lifetime.  In Bono's own words:

"The one thing, on which we can all agree, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums and in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. 6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality." --Bono

His words and his images kept us sane during the long wait for Noah.

And now I bring you to the connection with Noah.  The ringtone on my cell phone plays U2's  Pride when a call comes through.  It is a song that Noah has become accustom to and he hums it regularly.  When we started getting our bedtime routines down after Noah's arrival,  Noah would pay attention to what Sam would do to settle in for the night.  The one thing that stood out to Noah is that every night Sam would listen to music when he fell asleep.  Sam's choice of music...The Beatles.   Noah wanted music as well and when I asked him what type he would want the only song he could come up with... because it was so familiar was...Pride (In the name of Love).  Every night Noah's sweet sweet voice sings from down the hall...

 

One man come in the name of love 

One man come and go 
One come he to justify 
One man to overthrow 

In the name of love 
What more in the name of love 
In the name of love 

What more in the name of love 

Full circle...I was told 25 years ago to remember a band's name.  Could I  have guessed then how much that band would intertwine in  my life to the point of having our house serenaded every night to the melodies of U2 by my beautiful Ethiopian son.