I’m not much of a dreamer, at least not the kind of dreamer that my brother-in-law Heath is. He has woken up from a dream with the ability to tell every detail, like it was reality, and the explanation can take a very long time. Grace and Evelyn have both done the same thing, woken up and relayed every detail of a very complicated dream.

I have dreams, but they are usually broken up stories, almost like commercials. They don’t last long and they are often filled with blurry faces and mumbled voices. Nothing is very clear and they are regularly about things that I choose to forget the minute I wake up.

But…I had a dream.

Before I tell this dream though, first understand that I told a few people that I wanted to see Grace in a dream…so these few people started praying.

Last week Wednesday, at 5:30 in the morning, I woke up completely beside myself in tears. I couldn’t catch my breath and I struggled to be comforted by Jim, who was abruptly woken up by my panicked state.

My dream…

I was standing in my kitchen at the sink and I turned around because I knew she was behind me. And there she stood, sweaty faced, hair pulled up in a pony, with her basketball practice clothes on (exactly what she looked like the day of the accident). I reached for her and began touching her arms and face, asking her if she was real. She assured me that she was, and once I realized she was actually standing in front of me, I reached out to bring her into my arms, something I long for more than I can verbalize.

After holding her for a while, I pulled away to look at her face and ask her the one question I have been wanting to hear an answer to…

“Grace, are you okay?”

And her answer…it’s what I have needed to hear for 7 months. It’s what every parent longs to know after they lose what’s most important to them. It’s what woke me, what made me sit up in bed, tears coating my cheeks and breaths getting caught in my lungs.

With a huge smile on her face, she replied,

“Mom, I love it here!”