asylum

a friend, a colleague has, for months, been working with a refugee woman from Mali on an asylum case.
I'm one of many people who have also been part of this process, but my friend and this woman have bled tears. Our friend from Mali has suffered unspeakably.

this morning she and her daughters and son and husband were granted asylum and never have to go to Mali. Can't go to Mali.
Don't want to go there.

She and her husband can work. Their son can go to community college as an actual in-state student.

watching the prosecutor (from homeland security), the lawyer for my friend and the judge each perform their job, part performance, part for the record, part miracle part justice done.

small justice. huge injury already done. a chance for something else; surely something better for her children.

for that, much gratitude.

and for my own job, for this moment, for its own learning and teaching and for the small ability to help pay for this lawyer whose work escorts justice across the tiny hearing room.