“Long Night Moon”

album by Catie Curtis

If you’re going out of your mind waiting for your child to come home—or keenly remember those days—you must listen to “Long Night Moon,” the title track of the latest album from Catie Curtis. In this yearning lullaby, Curtis’ warm voice floats out on the cold December air to her daughter, Celia, who waits in Guatemala.

I’ve got a place for you
Under the long night moon
And I dream you’re looking up, too.
Good night, good night
Good night, long night moon.

Curtis, dubbed a “folk goddess” by the New Yorker, spills out her longing in this eminently hummable song, the closest we have to an anthem for waiting parents. “Long Night Moon” was born from the frustration Curtis and her partner, Liz, felt after being told that court proceedings would delay Celia’s adoption by several months. “It’s pretty incredible,” says Curtis. “I wrote the song for her, and now she’s here, singing along.”

Another song on the album, “New Flowers,” had its genesis “after a couple days in a row with no break from the kids,” says Curtis, laughing. “I can’t believe how much it means that Lucy and Celia are in our life now, and I’m at peace—mostly—being a little less productive.” Still, despite being in the thick of parenting Celia, now two, and four-year-old Lucy (also adopted from Guatemala), Curtis found the time to write this lovely ode to her “two reasons more, two kids I adore.”

Reviewed by Renee Olsen, editor of Adoptive Families and an adoptive mom to a seven-year-old who loves to sing along to “Yes, We Have No Bananas.”

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