First Funeral....A good experience??

So, I figured today was as good as any to create a blog. I've contemplated doing this from time to time...but just now really decided to invest the time into figuring this out! My initial reason for doing this is so that I can document every moment of my daughters life so someday she can read this. I figured today was in a way, a "first" for her, so I should document it.
Today, Noelani attended her first funeral. This was something that Antoine and I kind of debated about. It is an interesting thing sometimes being in an inter-racial relationship. The cultural differences we have are apparent at many family gatherings. Today was no exception. Her Dada really wanted her to come (since in his family this is what everyone does - all kids, no matter the age attend funerals). I was however, VERY reluctant to have her come. First off, I was raised in a Catholic family where this would NEVER be acceptable to bring a child to something like this. I could just picture her SCREAMING or RUNNING up and down the church aisles!
In my family, we always have a wake at a funeral home, and then go to the church for a funeral. In HIS family, the wake is always AT the church, for about an hour, before the actual funeral service.
It was my fear that Noelani would see the open casket and this is not something I wanted her to remember. Taking ALL things into consideration, we decided to compromise.
We decided it would be good to bring her to the funeral, but we would not be attending the wake. We would stay in the back of the church and if need be, leave or go outside with her.
To my surprise....she did really well! Of course she's an 18 month old toddler, so she got a bit antsy at times....but for her to sit for an hour she did really good. Her and I stayed in the back of the church while Antoine sat with his family. She enjoyed the gospel music and had no real understanding of the situation, however, it was good she was able to attend in the end.
One side note though - as the preacher finished his sermon, he said PRAISE GOD....so what did little miss chatter box need to mimic back? Yeah - she shouted in her little baby voice as best as she could.... "praise.god". Who knows?.....Maybe she had a better understanding than I realized......