June 7, 2013

I have often dreamed about being pregnant, giving birth and taking care of my babies. Good I haven’t had to send all the kids I’ve given birth to over the years to college, let alone raise them! When I’m actually pregnant it gets worse—recurrent dreams about giving birth to multiples—triplets, quadruplets…

But this is a first: Last night in my dream I adopted a little brown-skinned girl with thick black braids named Maria, about 4–5 years old. I still had my three real children, but Rebecca was away at college and Joel and Andrei were toddlers, younger than Maria. Odd. (Impossible.)

I adopted Maria unexpectedly: Someone just showed up with her and casually suggested that we take her, and I agreed. She fit into our family very well. The main adjustment I had to make was to remember to answer “four” whenever someone asked how many children I have, because I was so used to having three.