Hanging with the Federalists...

Whew, the whirlwind is over. We've been going non-stop since Wendy's wedding over a week and a half ago. I think we had one day when we didn't travel or didn't see family in there, and that was it. I'm exhausted, quite frankly, but also feeling a little weird and experiencing a little letdown from having so many people around. It's a little strange for it to be just Seth and me at home, alone, at the moment. Oh well, I know how this goes. I've seen it before. It'll feel more normal tomorrow.

But, during the whirlwind, I took the picture above. When David's parents came into town, he wanted them to meet his Justice, so that was arranged for this Tuesday. Seth got his picture taken with a couple of the Supremes that day, thanks to his mother, who has absolutely no shame. I'm looking forward to showing him his baby book one day and saying, "And this is you with Justice__....and this is you with Justice__, you spit up on him..., and here's you with the President." Ok, I'm kidding about the last one, but not about the others. =)

I digress. Anyway, on the same day, Tuesday, David was scheduled to meet with the UVA Federalist Society. They were coming up for oral arguments, and they were meeting with Justice Scalia afterwards. Another one of the clerks was in charge, but he got all the current clerks that went to UVA to help him out with clerk Q&A after the Justice spoke. I need to give you a little background about the Federalists. They're a conservative law school association, and David was an officer in the UVA chapter. I remember him writing letters to the Justices the summer after we were married, asking them if they'd meet with the Federalists for this exact same event. I actually joined the Federalists myself so I could go on that trip. I took a day off of work at the UVA Law bookstore to go. That year, we met with Justice Kennedy. I remember sitting in that room, feeling nervously like maybe my regulation conservative dark suit wasn't conservative enough, waiting for this important person to come in. And, more importantly for this post, I remember looking at Kennedy's clerk that spoke with us and thinking, "This guy is brilliant. He'd have to be to get this job. I wonder what his future looks like. Probably something really cool."

This Tuesday, I got to relive this past from a new perspective. This time, I sat in the back of the room, holding my sleeping baby, and I watched my husband field questions from a new group of Federalists. I saw from their questions that they were as in awe of him as I had been of the Kennedy clerk 6 years ago. And I thought, "Yeah, I know these guys standing up there. And I know that they're goofballs. But I also know that they're just as brilliant as I thought their predecessor was. And I'm so proud of the one of them who comes home to me at night."

You made it, David. God put you there, but you worked very hard to lay the foundation for this work of His. You weren't cool when you were younger, and life was hard in junior and senior high for you. You were lonely, but you turned to God, and you made doing your best in school your top priority. Your brother calls you a pit bull who grabbed on and never let go of something until you got it. In college, when you ran for Student Body President for the second time, we all cheered for the underdog, and you won. I think I may miss it sometimes, but at this point, I feel like you'll never be the underdog again. If you are, it'll be God's doing and not yours, and if that's His will, so be it. This is success in your chosen field, and I praise you for all that you've done to get where you are today. I love you.