Hits Deep Night

 Six months ago, Aliza and I were talking about who we wanted to see in concert and in the process we started looking up concert tours. Toby Mac and the Hits Deep Tour was coming to Baltimore the end of March. We got some friends to buy tickets with us and we waited. 

Last Sunday, March 27, finally arrived and we loaded up the vans--boys in one and girls in the other. We drove to Baltimore and ate at Chipotle without a care in the world. All of a sudden I looked at my watch and it was 6:30 and we were not at the arena yet. 

We got in a little after 7:00 and Terrain was already singing. As soon as we walked in the door, Isaiah  started reacting to the sound. I knew taking him was a big risk, but I really wanted to have this adventure as a family. We got to our seats on the very top row of the arena.

I had a bag of one use earplugs. They didn't help. It almost amplified the bass. Jeremy gave Isaiah his noise cancelling air pods. That didn't help either. Isaiah continued to get more worked up. He was crying, covering his ears and then his tummy started hurting.

I took him to the bathroom which was empty and quiet. We went in the wheelchair stall and he sat huddled in the corner. I'm pretty sure he felt like the sound had taken over his entire body. I was quickly envisioning my next 3 hours of sitting in the hallway with Isaiah and I was sad. There was no calming him down so I sat him down beside a nice lady at a vendor table and went to tell Jeremy and grab my purse.

I took Isaiah all the way to the end of the hall so that we would be completely out of the way. Then I realized that each of the seating sections on the first level were closed off by curtains. I convinced Isaiah to sit under the stairwell with the ipad where I could stand in the doorway to see the stage.

I completely missed Cochran and Co. CAIN was singing by the time I got Isaiah settled. It wasn't a bad view. I peeked in the curtain and decided I could still enjoy the concert.

Crowder was next and the red lights interested Isaiah. He started kind of peeking in with me and he was talking constantly. Over the next few songs we talked about the lights and the instruments and we realized that the entire section of seats to the left was empty. I don't think those seats were even for sale because they were technically past the middle of the stage on the side.

Isaiah was ready for a picture. And then we sat down in the seats to listen to the Feed the Hungry presentation.

At intermission the girls came down to visit us. They decided that it wasn't a bad view of the stage at all and tons of space and next thing I knew everyone moved down with Isaiah and I!

Toby Mac and the Diverse City Band started playing and we had the best time.

We all knew almost all of the songs. Isaiah didn't complain for even a second. He stood on the steps and didn't stop dancing.

Aliza didn't stop dancing and singing. Anna was loving every second. Josiah may have even been caught singing and tapping his toe.

the concert ended with confetti at 10:30pm.

We had just enough smiles left for one picture before we left.

We got home at 1:15am. The morning was a little rough and we didn't quite finish a full day of school, but it was worth the experience.