I had a dream the other night. I dreamed that I gave birth. First to a dog (I know, crazy right) then to a baby. When the nurse held up my baby she asked me what I was going to name her and I said, her name is Kajal. "But you can give her a new name now, you just gave birth to her" the nurse stressed. What other name would I give her, her name is Kajal. Then I remembered thinking, wow, I gave birth and I didn't have any labor pains!

That's what adoption is I realized the next morning, giving birth without the labor pains. You couldn't love your children any more. Now, about the dog, I happened to give birth in the dream to a massive German Shepard. I'm not sure what that was about since I have a Cavalier King Charles but the meaning was pretty clear. Although we have three cats my dog was really my first
'baby'. Waking up in the middle of the night to walk him... every two hours. I think having him rely on me as totally as he did was practice for the next big step to building a family. Some of you might take offense to this but I've heard it stated this way before. Start with a plant. If that doesn't die after six months, (then again, I've personally never been good with plants, they die on me all the time) buy a cat. If the cat thrives, a year or two later buy a puppy.  Well, you can take it from there Not that I would compare a child to an animal, ever. But it was great practice in learning how to be unselfish and focus on something outside of yourself.

I want to thank all of you that follow our story and our blog. The letters I've received in the last several months from all corners of the world have been so full of love and support that it never ceases to touch me or amaze me. I started this blog for Kajal and for friends and family and it has developed a life of it's own. There are more than ten thousand of you that have followed us in the past year through reading our entries and it amazes me. Thank you. Thank you for sharing our story and the blog address with your friends and your email lists and don't hesitate to post comments or reach out to say hello, any time.

We'd love to hear what you're thinking.