this woman’s work

It’s been a hard month. The trip to Portland was in many ways lousy and stressful, not to mention a whole helluva lot of money, with gleaming beacons of light (Susan among them) that almost but not quite made it worth it. Then the very large and very late — because it’s still not here — check earmarked for our entire budget for the month, throwing us completely off our budget. (It was meant to subsidize the ten days I wasn’t working and tide us over to the next pay-out.) Oh the money woes! Oh the financial strain!

So I dug in my heels and started making calls and sending out emails and now things are trickling in. I have three meetings scheduled this week and follow-up calls to make next week and an on-site job next week and another call just came in about something that maybe will turn into something else. Plus some encouraging news in other far-flung places, which all adds up to a summer that’s not looking quite so miserable as it was before. (Brett may still try to pick up some work though depending on how next week’s on-site job pans out because we need to rebuild our cushion.

But to serendipity. It’s interesting how the more you look around for work, the more work you find. And the more effort you make in connecting the more interesting connections you make. I keep getting payback from things I did months and months ago without much expectation and this is very encouraging since sometimes I wonder why I’m making these efforts. I tell you: the world is a small pond and things ripple in ways you wouldn’t expect.

Today I met with a woman I saw speak a couple of weeks ago. She has a great story and I knew I wanted to try to pitch her. So we hooked up and before she arrived I met another woman who happens to be an adoptive mother and who started talking to me after she saw me putting OpenAdoptionSupport.com cards out on the community table at the coffee shop. She knows some resources around town I hadn’t heard about (because she’s an international adopter) and I was interested to hear about them. (Also, Julia? She used to work for the local kidney foundation so we gossiped about kidneys a little bit.) Then I met the woman I was there to meet and we played six degrees until we figured out how we know each other. After two hours I have a pretty good handle on the pitch I want to make and a few markets in mind. I also have some ideas about how she can promote the good work she’s doing and that’s exciting, too.

Now I’m blogging right before I leave to take Madison to tumbling but the world seems like a great big wonderful place of possibility and interesting stories right now and this is the best way to feel when you’re still staring down a budget deficit and wondering when that big check is going to show up.

People, hang in there when the going gets tough. Keep working. It’ll pay off if you just keep showing up. (I say this to myself because I need to hear it, too.)