My Space

About a year ago I was blessed to be able to attend an adoption conference specially for social workers, foster parents and adoptive parents. I was a bit nervous about attending by myself but there was no way David and I could both get away. (After the third child babysitter were hard to come by and now with eight we are lucky to get away once a year to celebrate our anniversary:)
As I came in for the morning session I saw an open table and sat down. Soon the place filled up and I was sitting with seven other people I had never met before trying hard to make conversation.....wishing all the time that David could be there with me.
The speaker got up and said something about how early in the morning it was and that we needed to stretch. So, reluctantly we all stood up and went through her calisthenic drill. By the time we were finished none of us were standing behind the chair we started at, the place at the table where all our papers and notes were, the seat whose back held our purses, the space that we were (even after only 15 minutes) were calling ours. She asked us to be seated in the chair that was directly in front of us. Most of us looked around a bit first, eyed our purses and stuff then hesitantly we sat down and tried hard to keep our minds on what our very knowledgeable speaker was sharing with us.
It is amazing how uncomfortable that was for all of us. I was already feeling lonely, missing David and not knowing anyone else there but now I felt uneasy and even cheated. I wanted to get everything I could out of this conference and I am a note taker but my note pad and pen were across the table. Should I reach across and get it or maybe ask that person to hand it to me. But if I did that would I offend the speaker? Would that be a distraction to the others? After about five minutes of straining to listen and take in all Juli Alvarado had to say, one man raised his hand and asked what was on all our minds. "Could we please return to our seats now?"
Ms Alvarado asked us to describe how we felt right at that moment. She said that it only took us a matter of minutes to get that attached to a plastic seat and for us to see how upset we were when it was taken from us. Then she asked us to think about how our kids felt every time they were uprooted from one foster home and taken to another. Some of my kids tell me that there were times when they went to school and came home to find their suitcase packed, sitting in the living room and a social worker there to take them to another foster home. I can't really even imagine how that must have felt for them.....but thanks to Juli Alvarado I now have just a little hint.
You might want to check out her web site.....www.coachingforlife.com