Great Ending, Great Beginning

After a long day, fairly disjointed and quite busy, Bart and I had a good conversation. His day had ended nicely (he even blogged again) and so we went to bed happy.

Then this morning, Sadie, Kari and I headed to the Y at five, followed by breakfast and writing time afterwards. We have decided to work on a book together -- more details later -- but I mentioned to Kari that writers have to write. So the only time we could find to carve out of our schedule was time that we were previously sleeping. So we are now doing the exercise thing followed by 45 minutes of writing over breakfast together. We're making slow progress. After we have a couple chapters actually written maybe we'll let you know what the book is about. Or maybe we won't. ;-)

I had an early morning meeting with a couple that was incredibly fun for me. I don't know what will become of it or what they will decide, but it started with "we are going to adopt a domestic infant for sure. We certainly aren't open to a foster child who comes with baggage."

I presented facts. I shared feelings. I listened a lot. I concluded that they really are the kind of people who would do excellent with kids from foster care. We talked some more. By the time I was done they were contemplating the option. So to me that is an hour well spent.

Certainly there are folks out there who definitely should only adopt a domestic newborn. I know them when I meet them. In fact, some of them are in the foster care program simply because they want a "free baby." When I get to know these people, I do everything that I can to convince them that adopting a newborn is their best, if not only, good option.

But there are many people who have what it takes to do this. They just think "this" might be hard, and therefore they don't want to do something hard. I challenge that. i work through it with people. And sometimes a kid in foster care ends up with a really good family because I took time to say, "listen. You can do this if you want to. I'm not saying you have to, but you should at least consider it.

To me, getting people to say, "hey, that might be a possibility" is an hour well spent.

I returned home to find Bart saying he had had one of the best mornings ever and to almost everyone else still sleeping. Sadie added two entries to her blog this morning. I'm very proud of her for getting up and coming to the Y and exercising. And I encourage her to write. She started a book last summer and she is thinking about working on it some more.

I have a lot to do in short periods of time in the next few hours, but it has been a really good beginning to the day.