This personal account was written and shared by adoptive parent Andy Meyers, Agape Adoption Agency’s Intake & Outreach Specialist.
I admit it. I am a Taylor Swift fan. No apologies. No weird round-a-bout justification. I’ve always liked her music.
The first time I took my oldest daughter to see her live, I think I was excited as she and the other 28,000 screaming tweens were.
Nothing could prepare us for how awesome May of 2018 would be in the Taylor universe.
We joined a foster family support/resource group when we became foster parents because we realized early on that in order to thrive in this journey, we would need a community of support. The group we joined helps foster and adoptive families with advice, support, resources, and in this very unique opportunity, tickets to a private concert with Taylor Swift.
I opened an email from the organization that said Taylor Swift was inviting foster and adoptive families to her final dress rehearsal for her Reputation tour at State Farm Arena in Glendale. All we had to do was sign up with the number of tickets we needed for our family, show up, not talk about it before, and we couldn’t bring phones. I signed up, and within a couple of days, we had 6 tickets in hand for the private event, including one for my 69-year-old mother.
I could focus on how amazing this experience was and a celebrity using her status for something really good. I could talk about how we had the run of the floor and how she came out and welcomed us. I could talk about how she bought us all pizza after and she stayed 3 more hours to take pictures after. I could talk about how this probably ruined any other concert experience that my kiddos will ever have because rock stars don’t ever buy you pizza and stick around to take pictures and their dad thanks you all individually at the door for coming on your way out.
Instead, I will talk about a missed opportunity I saw and how it sat with me for months afterward.
When we got to the stadium, we had to wait outside before we could go in for security and to make sure we didn’t have phones or cameras. It was May in Phoenix and it was warm, not hot, warm. When we were ushered into the tunnel to get to the floor of the stadium, we had to wait. It was even warmer in the tunnel and we assume the crew and everyone was making last minute preparations so this night would go off as amazing as it did.
Waiting can be hard. Waiting with children can be even harder. We all took turns with our four-year-old while we waited. We weren’t given many instructions, except to wait.
All of a sudden, a family with girls who were in that sweet spot for Taylor Swift super-fans excused themselves past us and I heard them say, “we can’t wait anymore, this is ridiculous” and left the line, the stadium, and this opportunity. Five minutes later, we were let into the floor and had an experience we will never forget.
Now, I don’t know what happened to them that day. I don’t know the dynamic that this family came in with or the issues they were facing. I do know that fostering can be hard and many times we can live with our head down, in the tunnel, and feel like we are alone and things aren’t progressing the way we want or need them to. When we keep persevering, keep being surrounded by those who are walking with us; whether it’s other families in the tunnel that keeps us going, or organizations like AZAFAP or Foster AZ or Three Precious Miracles (organizations that I am close to), or our amazing, caring Agape caseworkers and staff; sometimes there’s a Taylor Swift experience you’ll never forget just with five more minutes of waiting.
