Pour yourself a cup of coffee (or a glass of lemonade if summer has already arrived where you are) and settle in.

If things have seemed a little quiet around here lately (they’re not), it’s because much of this week has been spent building things.

In my kitchen, that meant a crash course in cabinet assembly with my son Joey. We’ve become surprisingly proficient at deciphering instruction diagrams, adjusting drawer slides, and operating a borrowed nail gun (thank you, Cesar!). After months of demolition, planning, waiting, measuring, ordering, and more waiting, the kitchen is finally beginning to look less like a construction zone and more like a room again.

At Adopt an Inmate, we’ve been building too.

This week we received the completed handoff of our new matching application, built by students at UC Berkeley through Blueprint, a technology-for-social-good organization that develops software for nonprofits. We were fortunate to be selected for this project, and over the past year their team has worked alongside us to create a matching tool designed specifically for Adopt an Inmate. Until now, every match has been created through a labor-intensive manual process. The new tool allows adopters to complete an application, review a small number of potential matches, and help guide the matching process while our team continues to provide oversight and final approval.

The application is now complete and in our hands. We’re beginning testing and reviewing the administrative side of the system, and if all goes well, we hope to launch it soon.

In a way, both projects feel similar right now. The cabinets are assembled but not installed. The app is finished but not yet launched. In both cases, things are beginning to look less like piles of parts and more like something that can actually be used.

Speaking of things coming together, Abby recently got her summer haircut and seems quite pleased with herself. Boo, meanwhile, has so far escaped the family tradition of every living being that steps in the house receiving paint on their nose when we’re painting. The tradition was started years ago by my stepfather, and although he’s no longer with us, it’s one of the small ways his energy still fills the house. Here’s evidence that Boo was an unwilling participant of said tradition – judge her expression for yourself. Hey, I didn’t make the rules.

Looking ahead, in the coming week we’ll be sharing a new series of stories and reflections centered around what it means to be justice-impacted. These stories won’t be about labels. They’ll be about people, relationships, families, and the ways our lives are shaped by systems we often don’t notice until they touch someone we love.

As always, thank you for being part of the Adopt an Inmate family. We appreciate every letter written, every donation made, every story shared, and every person who continues to walk alongside us.

We’ll have more to talk about next Sunday.

Until then,

Melissa

A question for readers:
Is there a person, tradition, or lesson from someone you’ve lost that still shows up in your daily life?

Quote of the Week: 
“No dreams are beyond building.” ― Anthony T. Hincks

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