Ringing in "Our Year"

Hello, everyone, and Happy New Year! We are more than halfway through January. How did THAT happen? Jeff and I had a quiet New Year's Eve, but we recognized that we were probably ringing in "our year." I am convinced that this is the magic year for us, and that our dreams of being united with our child will finally be realized in 2009. People keep telling me "this is YOUR year." This year, I really think it is!

Switching topics a little bit: I am still coming off the high of Inauguration Day, and the privilege I felt to be witnessing history in the making. Weren't you guys SO EXCITED to see all of that? I was! Whether you were an Obama supporter or not, you have to admit that it was an amazing, history-making day. On Tuesday it felt to me that our country was truly one in celebrating such a historic moment. How amazing it must have been to BE THERE (I wanted to be there, but I was as close as I was willing to get--I don't do crowds very well!) to witness the swearing-in of an African-American as President of the United States--how amazing, especially, for those people who also witnessed, years ago, racism in its most blatant, ugly form. What joy they must have felt!

As I sat glued to the television from 9:00 a.m. till well into the evening, I was so moved and felt such a connection to my fellow Americans, of all races, colors, creeds, and ethnicities. I know it sounds corny, but I felt so...patriotic. I wiped many a tear away listening the various speeches; hearing Aretha Franklin just belting out, as only the Queen of Soul can, "Let Freedom Ring" (she also got me reminiscing about my college days and my alcohol-induced attempts to sing the song R-E-S-P-E-C-T into my faux-beer-bottle "microphone" but that's a story for another time); and seeing the faces of everyday Americans not just putting up with the cold but SMILING and crying and laughing and celebrating, despite six layers of clothes and wind-chill factors in the teens and lower and crowds of unprecedented proportions. It was such a joyous day for our country. We'll all remember where we were on this day, and what we were doing.

I am going somewhere with this diatribe: I really am! Looking around at the crowd that day, it reminded me that having a child who is not our race or skin color is going to be looked upon as the most normal thing. It gave me such hope and consolation that our child is not going to be discriminated against and is not going to ever have to deal with the blatant ugliness of racism but rather will be embraced and accepted as the American that he or she is. And if this glorious day happened in MY lifetime, then just imagine the miracles that will be possible in our child's lifetime! Wow!