Quinn left Saint Francis home to live with his new family. It wasn't as if he was going to live in another country, as he was moving to the other side of the city. I'm not too fond of goodbyes, as they seem so final. I really hate it when someone cries. Luckily Quinn was not crying; in fact, he had a smile that nearly reached both his ears. Of course, Quinn was happy as he was getting a new family. On the other hand, I had watery eyes, and I was doing my best not to let tears flow down my cheeks. Clara was in tears, but I doubt that was because she would miss Quinn; it was mostly because I would now have more time to terrorise her. 97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtl8TG0VXEp
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The director of the boy's choir that Rowan and I were in told us that we would be doing a concert at my uncle's church. You remember that I told you that my uncle's name was Father James (I will call him Father James from now on, so you all remember that he is a priest). I was delighted that we would be doing a concert there, as I liked my uncle and his church. When Rowan and at one of Father James's (my uncle) masses, he would joke during his homily, such as telling Rowan he should do my homework or telling me that I needed a haircut. At least Father James did not sing during his masses like Father Scott did, which was a blessing as Father James sounded like a vacuum cleaner full of coal when he sang. Another good reason why I was happy we would be doing a concert there was that Quinn was also in the choir and I would be able to see him. 97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV5XwlSxPBv
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Our choir director's name was Mr. Frank, and he was a nice man, although at times he was very stubborn and liked giving long speeches. Still, he was nice to us and tried to bring the best out of us. Mr. Frank always gave me good solos, as he thought that I sang as an angel. When I told Clara this, she rolled her eyes and said that Mr. Frank obviously did not see the horns that were hidden under my long hair. I think that Clara was just jealous because she could not be in a boy's choir for obvious reasons. The concert at Father James Church went very well. I sang my favourite song, which is called “Pie Jesu,” without any mistakes. Mr. Frank was very proud of me after the concert, and so was Rowan. 97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEWPD3887G8
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Remember I told you that I did not expect to see Pastor Rivers again? I was wrong. She was at the concert and came up to Rowan and me and told us that we had done a great job in the church concert and God should be praised. It was like she gave Rowan and me a small sermon on how good God is and how we can thank him for our talent. We could not get a word in, so we just nodded once in a while. When her sermon was over, she told us that it was a shame that two nice boys like us did not have a mother who could love us. I had to agree there, although we did have a mom, but she was incapable of showing us any love. 97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZmiEMSpSXT
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Pastor Rivers invited us to see her church. It was not a Catholic church, as she told us that it was a nondenominational church. She called it God’s Church. I was a bit confused, as I have always been surrounded by Catholics all my life, and being at a place that was not Catholic confused me. One thing that I noticed is that Pastor Rivers Church was huge. It has a lot of marble and colourful rugs. There were religious pictures everywhere, or posters with Bible quotations. There was the church itself, a children's room, a library, a cinema, a pool, and lots of empty rooms. You needed a map because otherwise you would get lost. It all seemed very posh to me and very expensive, not like the poor furniture and cold stone walls we had at Saint Francis Home. While we were given the tour of the church, Pastor Rivers told us her life history, how many years she studied to be a pastor, and how many people she had converted. Every time Rowan and I would try and talk about ourselves, Pastor Rivers would interrupt and talk about her work as a pastor or her health problems. Pastor Rivers made me smile and even laugh, but she could also confuse me. She would talk about how good God was and that he looked after her, and at the same time she told us that she has 12 strokes and countless other health problems. 97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgJJvcwyWUu
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Pastor Rivers told Rowan and me that she would love to be our foster mom. I nearly fainted. This was the woman who walked out of the classroom after 4 minutes and wrote a rude letter. She seems to have dedicated all her life to her work as a pastor. Did she even have time for us? She hurt our school and the people that we loved at the school, and now she wanted us. If we said yes to the adoption, would we be traitors to Saint Francis Home?97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY9v9VHkniM
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We were invited back to Pastor Rivers and were surprised when people started dancing during prayers. That's right, some gospel music came on, and people began dancing for an hour. I always liked dancing, so this was great fun, and it surprised me that even Rowan was a good dancer. He obviously had some talents that we did not know that he had. While we were dancing, some of the people started quoting the Bible. Others would say sentences such as “Jesus is in the house” or “Jesus lives." Rowan and I smiled at each other, as we did not know that being at church could be so much fun. 97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN8l0gVozrF
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After the dance was done, we were told to sit, where Pastor Rivers gave a sermon. She started with her life story and how much she had suffered, but Jesus was with her all the time. She mentioned all the heart attacks she had and all the strokes and then praised God. She mentioned several times that we should press it, and this confused me, as I did not know what we should press. Her sermon was passionate and full of emotion to such an extent that she ended up screaming and shouting. I was on the edge of my seat, as I did not know if the screaming meant that she was mad or something. Rowan could see my fear and told me it was just her passion and love for Jesus. I looked at Rowan and told him Pastor Rivers sounded like the banshee. I could see that Rowan was doing his best not to burst out laughing. It was around this time that I asked the girl next to me how long these prayers were, as we had been dancing and listening to the sermon for 2 hours. She told me there are prayers for 5 hours, but there are also breaks. Rowan and I did not want to stay for 5 hours, so we made excuses we had to get back to Saint Francis home.97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lbEqbTcPt
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I did get some good news a few days after this from the choir director, Mr. Frank. He told me that I would be promoted to the head choir boy, and this was a big achievement, as it's not that often that a 9-year-old becomes a head choir boy. I suppose it was because I was a good singer and the choir was the most important thing in my life. I of course said that I would be honoured to be the head choir boy, as Rowan smiled and told me how proud of me. Being a head choir boy meant that I helped Mr Frank in choosing songs and who should do what solo. It was a big responsibility, as I had to be mature and treat every boy in the choir the same, even the boys that annoyed me. I couldn’t use the choir either as a way to torment my big brother by giving him songs that I knew he hated. This would be a challenge for me, as the best thing about being a little brother is the right to torture your older brother. 97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdTBrYo8XEj
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Rowan was thinking a lot about the offer from Pastor Rivers to be our foster mom. He asked me what I thought about her. I asked him what he thought, and the next 10 minutes were us trying to get each other to express our feelings first. Looking back at it, I realise that Rowan wanted me to speak first, as he did not want to influence me. I told him that Pastor Rivers made me laugh, and she was funny. It was clear that she liked us, and even though Rowan was a teenager, she treated him the same way as me. Rowan admitted that he liked Pastor Rivers as well, but we should take our time in deciding what we wanted to do. 97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaUI3sjxz4k
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When we told Father Scott that Pastor Rivers wanted to be our foster mom, he told us that we should seriously consider this. She was not a Catholic, and the way her church did things was far different from the way we do things, and while this could be a good experience, it could be confusing. In other words, it will make us confused about our identities. I think Father Scott was telling us that religion and her mission as a pastor were her life. If we said yes to being her foster children, we would have to be part of her mission, and this was something we knew very little about. It was obvious that Father Scott did not like the idea of her giving us a home. I can understand this, as she did not treat Father Scott too well, and she must have either hurt him or annoyed him a lot. Still, Father Scott put his feelings about her aside and thought of our happiness.97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYLWvtpdfEe
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We visited Pastor Rivers again, as it was not wise that she should come to Saint Francis's home to visit us. We learnt more about who she was as a person. She did have interests outside the church. She liked going to markets to sell second-hand things, which sounded fun. She did admit that as well as loving going to markets, it was also a way that she could earn money to pay for the church rent, which mustn't have been cheap as the place was so big. Rowan and I did not have much to say to her, as we couldn’t get a word in edgeways. This did not matter so much, as she made us smile, and it was nice being noticed by an adult. Pastor Rivers also introduced us to her family, which was huge. I would never remember who was who, and I doubt I would ever remember their names. The only one I would remember was Pauline, who was a little bit younger than me. She was Pastor River's granddaughter and made us feel very welcome.97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkufDb4zrKI
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When I told Clara that Pastor Rivers wanted to be our foster mom, she told me that I was crazy. No one at the school liked her or could forget the way that she treated the school, and besides this, Clara reminded me that I was one of them who caused trouble during her 4-minute class. I joked with Clara, telling her that she must really care about me as this was her opportunity to get rid of me. Clara smiled and told me that maybe this idea was a good idea after all, as I would drive Pastor Rivers crazy. She was surprised that Rowan had not already gone crazy.97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA0fAHehixw
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The next time we spoke with Pastor Rivers, she told us that it was a big decision that we would want to be her foster children, and she respected that we needed the time to consider it. She asked us what were our biggest fears. I told her that I was Catholic and wanted to stay Catholic. I did not want to convert to another religion, and on top of this, I wanted to continue to go to school at Saint Francis because that's where all my friends were. Rowan told Pastor Rivers that she would need patience with me as I seemed to find trouble at all times. Rowan told her that I was also known to be a bit girlish, and it was no secret that at times I wore girl clothes. Pastor Rivers smiled and told us that she could never dream of changing who we were or taking us away from our friends or the things that we loved to do.97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuchOgcIoRj
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Pastor Rivers came to the next choir concert. During Rowan's solo, we could hear her tell the others how talented we both were and that she already considered us as family. This did something to me, as I could feel my heart melt. I could feel my eyes get watery, and this was strange; in fact, it was strange that someone said in public nice things about Rowan and me and that she considered us family. After the show, she gave Rowan and me a hug, and this made us feel loved and wanted. Let me tell you that this is a strange feeling for a boy who has a mom who is incapable of taking care of him and has so many problems that you feel like you will be in Saint Francis's home with no one to show you the love a parent can. The hug meant so much and meant that there was no chance I would just be a statistic of an unwanted child in a child's home. 97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRw5P5306lu
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Rowan and I decided that Pastor Rivers would be our foster mom. Father Scott was not so pleased about this and gave us a warning. He was afraid that we would end up being hurt once again. Pastor Rivers lived in a world that was alien to us. We would also be in a “black culture," which was also different from what we were used to. He said Pastor Rivers was passionate about her faith, and that could cause problems. Would she be our pastor first and mom second? In other words, we needed a mom and not a pastor. 97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCUUfgB3V6P
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The foster agreement was finalised though, despite Father Scott's fears. A few days later, Rowan and I had our suitcases packed, ready for the next chapter in our lives.97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5GH6AH9mF5
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