Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream

Just got back from my mother-in-law's (Mom #2) house where we held court for a casual dinner for my Mom and sis-in-law whose birthdays made them a little wiser this past week.  Tonight's menu consisted of many delectable delights such as ketchup basted shrimps, pancit (to represent long life), chicken wings, steamed broccoli & string beans (gave me the farties) -- all finished off with the obligatory birthday cake.

Sweeter as the years go by

While Mom #2 was busy cooking dinner earlier in the evening, it's my nature to perform "quality control" in the kitchen, read: get a little taste beforehand.  After eating a bit o' chicken wing, I thought I would just scamper away, but Mom #2 called to me in a faint, but stern whisper - "Ep, come here".  Ruh-roh, this monkey got caught with his hand in the cookie jar!  Turns out, that I wasn't in trouble at all, but she did want to inform me that she knew what Camille looks like.  Hmm, I thought.  I figured maybe she was talking about the newest ultrasound pictures perhaps?  She proceeded to tell me that she had a dream the other night where she was holding and cuddling Camille.  She claims that, aside from her having my father-in-law's nose, she had an uncanny resemblance to ... Rachel!  :-\  I then pleaded to know if she could tell if she had any resemblance to her proud Papa at all, but to no avail - Camille is a carbon copy of her mama (which may indeed be a good thing).  This little anecdote is a good segue into today's topic, the realm of the subconscious: dreams ... and specifically their role in being premonitions of the arrival of our beloved Camille.  Queue the harps!

Divine Intervention
I'm not one for shoving my faith, or my personal inclinations down others' throats -- I'll leave that to the door-to-door evangelists. However, those who do know me well know that I am a big believer in God's big plan for each of us, and that he gently guides us everyday into understanding that master plan.

When we decided to have another baby at the beginning of this year, the loss of Elijah weighed heavily on both of our minds/hearts.  I admit being in utter despair when our first try at having another baby wasn't successful (more on that to come in future posts).  In my thoughts & prayers, I was like - God can you just give us a break?  Throw us a bone or something!  It seems that the old adage, "Ask, and ye shall receive" held true in this case.  Allow me to elaborate:

First Premonition - Timeframe: January 2010
A good friend of mine from work, whom I haven't seen in many moons, randomly dropped by my desk and asked, "is Rachel pregnant?".  Not your normal introductory salvo when greeting someone you haven't seen in a while.  What, no how are you or how is the weather?  She went on to explain that her husband had a dream that Rach was pregnant.  Hmm - that's weird, I thought. I remarked on what a coincidence that was because we were trying to have another baby, but though so far not successful, she'd be the first to know if her dream came true.  Wait, my friends, the plot thickens!

Second Premonition - Timeframe February 2010
Another friend of mine from work, who sits right across for me, but who I don't necessarily converse a lot with, got up suddenly and took a seat right next to me.  With some trepidation, she said, "I need to tell you something".

She then went on to tell me a story of a dream that she had about her dad.  In her dream, her dad was complaining of chest pains and apparently the dream was so lucid  and real, upon waking, she felt compelled to call her dad and tell him what had happened.  For peace-of-mind, her dad agreed to go to the hospital the next day to go get checked out.  Here comes the Shyamalan twist: the doc checks him out and it turns out he was already in the midst of a heart attack right then and there .... DUN DUN DUNNNNNN.  Wait it gets better!

She said, "Eph - I also had a dream about you."

Crap, I almost sharted.  "Am I having a heart attack too???!!!"  Thankfully, no.  She again had this same type of lucid dream, but this time it was of Rachel and me holding a baby in our arms, and she could just feel how happy we were.  Again, she felt that she was a messenger from God of sorts, a pseudo-Angel Gabriel  if you will, compelled  to share this premonition with me --- to let me know that everything was going to be ok, and that all our trials & tribulations, and all of our prayers would not be for naught.  Or could it just be plain coincidence?  Long story short, a couple days and a few preggy tests later, we found we were pregnant with Camille.  :0) 

Yes, I thank God every day that Rach is pregnant, and yes, I have faith that everything will turn out all right in the end, but I am pragmatic about it -- anything can happen, but all we can do is try our darnedest to stay positive.  Only time will tell if all these dreams indeed do become premonitions.  Coincidence?  Maybe.  To me, it's coincidence enough that anyone would have a dream about me in general, let alone a dream of Rach being pregnant and having a child.  The odds of that happening, and by the way, the examples above are only two of several, are just mind blowing to me.  They say God communicates with us in ways that we have yet to understand, but man, a simple text or email would suffice ... or better yet, a message on a piece of toast. JK God!

Appreciate you all keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.  Have a great week everyone!