The Lion King

Several years ago, our girls' love of Disney's The Lion King prompted us to start collecting and watching documentaries on African wildlife with our girls, which in turn inspired us to travel to Kenya for the first time to witness the great migration. It was during that trip that we got our first taste of Africa. Our love of and feeling of connection with East Africa and the Horn of Africa is growing so much deeper and more meaningful with our adoption from Ethiopia. The song Circle of Life speaks to our hearts on many different levels now. At about the same time we decided to move forward with the adoption, our local children's theatre announced that its spring production would be The Lion King. Of course Miss M wanted to participate. At 5 years old, she is the youngest member of the theatre. She was the only one not able to read the script but the first one to have the entire thing memorized. They created the role of Shenai, another lion cub friend of Simba's in addition to Nala--who tags along and mimics everything Simba does--especially for her. All year, I've been so impressed with the dedication of the older kids and the way they took our Miss M under their wings, looked after her and made her feel special and like a real part of "the group". It really boosted her confidence and made it all such a wonderful experience for her. Months and months of practice culminated in two performances the weekend before last. Our girl sang and danced her little heart out. All of the children did great but there couldn't have been any parents there that were prouder than us. My heart swelled and tears rolled down my cheeks as I watched my firstborn shine in the spotlight. Broadway watch out!

It was so hard to choose a portion of the performance to post, but I finally narrowed it down to some excerpts from the songs. I just love the music in this play.

(Please scroll down and pause (II) the background music before playing the video)

P.S.--Since I'm now feeling nostalgic about it, I'm going to share some pictures from our 2007 Kenya trip. The beauty of the East African landscape and wildlife truly is a source of pride for its people and is definitely something to be appreciated, treasured, protected and not taken for granted. If you're interested, click HERE. Be patient--it takes a minute or so to load. Comments are in white at the bottom of the pictures (move your cursor over the captions and arrow to read the ones where I was a little too wordy for the space provided).