Quiet Evening

So, I said I wouldn't write, but I guess I lied.

I am sitting in my pretty hotel room, with a view of the water, ordering room service, and typing on my lap top. I even took a taxi to the hotel. The agency is paying for everything. Sigh. And somehow it feels wrong, all this money that is being spent to bring me to this city for about 48 hours.

But it is all part of something very important. I'm helping to welcome new people to the research review committee, on which I will serve for at least one more year. I will continue to read questionaires before they are sent out and reports before they are published. I will continue to be a small part of a project aimed at better understanding all the complex factors of real life problems and trying to find real life solutions.

It's where the reunification care project comes from. That is part of it. The agency wants to figure out how to do a lot of things better. How to help families so that kids don't need to go into care, how to help them and their families to maximize the chance of successful, safe, and healthy reunification. Of while of course continuing to help youth who need them find new, parmanent families, and helping youth emancipating from care establish independence. They are working on understanding and responding to all the complexities that affect the welfare of children.

It is all very exciting, and I am glad to be a part of it.

And I am very glad to have this quiet evening alone in a hotel room.