Goodness.

Two months ago today I wrote my first blog post. And two months ago today I was reflecting on the same thing I'm reflecting on right now - the goodness of people.

We went to our first parenting/education class today. It was a long 7 hours, the room was warm and stuffy, and the chairs weren't super comfortable. We learned about trauma, about some of the challenges of adopting, a bit about attachment disorder and we heard from two adults who were adopted when they were babies. Lots of stuff that was, quite frankly, hard to hear. And harder to grasp.

But talk about some poignant moments...one couple in the class already has their "referral" and they have traveled to Haiti twice to see their babies (yes, twins!), but have not been able to get them home yet. I watched them, across the room from each other, each tear up as a woman in a video described seeing her child for the first time and "recognizing her child". A few of the couples in the room are adopting older children with special needs from foster care; what a courageous and loving thing to do. I watched two women sit with tears streaming down their cheeks as we discussed what some of these children have lived through...and what it will take to raise them. I thought there was so much beauty in this group of people, eager to be joined with a child who needs them, eager to do their absolute best by those children, eager to share their love. And all the while aware that it'll be messy, hard and far from perfect... yet they're unwavering in their commitment.

So, yeah, people do terrible things. People abandon babies, people hurt other people and animals, people start wars. But to glimpse the love that we're capable of...just makes me believe a bit more that the world's better than we know. We're just not always good at seeing it. Namaste for now.