Spicy Dragons & Dinosaurs

Friday afternoon and all is well. Just finished my first class -- still a bit confused about the online part of the course, and I have a social work distant learning course that I have no information about, but I expect that it will be sorted out by the middle of next week.

I met with my mentor, Barb, this morning and thrashed out some of my computer problems. She was a big help, especially making clear what it was I was supposed to be doing. I have not even registered for the social work course that I am suppose to audit.

I lunched with another of the family discipline trainees (which is what I am as well) and then we went to class. We sat in our assigned groups and once again I was impressed with the people who are part of this program. Although my group is composed of all young grad students and me, these young women bring a deep understanding of their chosen fields and I have so much to learn from them. I definitely think that the grad school model does more for the active learner than the law school model. (I also think that UW is probably a good place to study SW or psychology in some form. )

Of the home work that I completed, I like writing my vision statement the best. We were supposed to write what we wanted to be doing in 5 years. I have been walking around all week, thinking that I could not do it at all, but I did all the pre exercises, some of them during the week, and then just sat down and wrote this morning. It came out as a whole. This was what I wrote:

I am running the first Ready-Set-Go House in a small coastal city in China. Julia and I are living with 6 girls ages 7 to 13 and preparing them to be adopted by Western families. Julia and the girls attend a Chinese school half the day and are either home schooled or attend an English speaking school for the other half of the day. I am also working with children in the near-by orphanage who have neurological impairments or who are developmentally disabled. I am hoping to work out, with the help of visiting experts, exercises, learning plans and therapies that will help these children develop along age appropriate paths. Our RSG House hosts visiting experts from around the world who come for short or long visits to help our children. The RSG House and ongoing therapies are supported by grants and the sponsorship of private funding. I plan to begin spending a few months each year visiting in the US, Canada, and Europe to raise funds for the House, lecture about what I have learned, and consult with those who know much more than I do. In the future, I hope to open two or three more RSG Houses in other Chinese cities. I also hope that I will be able to take some of the girls living in the RGS House with me as I travel.

Two questions right now: Can I really do that? And what can I do to prepare for this kind of an adventure. This is the kind of crazy lady dream that I told people that I wanted to do. It is what David's death almost demands of me -- to live as fully as I possibly can. Dare to leap, dare to plan, dare to risk everything.

Julia is playing Go Fish with one of her therapists. I can hear them ask for cards and say go fish to each other. In the beginning of the summer, Julia could not play this game. Now, she sounds like a regular kid from when I sit and type.