Two Days in DC: Inauguration and Mediation

Inauguration Day was really uplifting. Starting near the Cathedral in the morning sunshine, we walked down Massachusetts Avenue (pausing for a photo with Winston Churchill) to 12th and Pennsylvania. We watched the Swearing-In Ceremony with a lot of old friends and staffers at Peter’s office, many of us weeping and smiling at the same time. Then from Peter's 11th-floor office window we watched the sunlight shift on Pennsylvania Avenue with a young Jordanian-Palestinian lawyer, whom we've known since he was seventeen and a freshman at UVA, along with various firm clients and their young children. We shmoozed until the parade started. And there they were for a few seconds--Mr. and Mrs. Obama walking and waving, and then Mr. and Mrs. Biden, and bands from all over the country. When it grew dark and the parade was still going on, we pulled ourselves away and headed back uptown, eventually making our way up the long hill toward the Cathedral in the sharp, invigorating night air, past Mahatma Ghandhi and Khalil Gibran. It was all very symbolic.

And now we've rolled up our sleeves and we're back to work. I did a Child Protection Mediation at DC Superior Court yesterday. The family is in dire straits, the mother in her first week of detox, the father ill and under-employed. The 5-week-old baby boy, born premature and with PCP in his system, is currently in foster care. He has now, thankfully, passed the 5-pound milestone and has no apparent medical problems. The parents acknowledged that it will be hard work but promised to do everything it takes to be reunited as a family after the mother completes a long residential detox program offered through the Family Court. (Mothers in the program keep their babies with them.) We all noted that this mediation occurred on President Obama's first full day in office and that if his--and our--grand dreams can be made a reality, then maybe, with hard work--by parents and government service providers alike--baby A__'s yet-unimaginable good dreams can be realized, too.