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--- THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO GO UNDER CHERYL'S DREAMS ---
As a little kid I got to watch the Brady Bunch. I loved it. It made me dream of having a large family. When asked by kindly adults what I would do when I grew up I would tell them (much to their amusement) that I was going to have three sons and three daughters.
In teenage years I had the opportunity to work in a pre-school, as well as baby-sit for neighbors. My dream changed to a very different path: I wanted to become a foreign correspondent. I must have embarrassed my dad something fierce with such a big dream, because he advised me to just tell people that I was planning to work as an office clerk of some sort. Not long before I was ready to graduate from school I was given two options by my parents: Number one, a filled hope chest, and number two, college. I chose a small language college. ("I'll buy my own sheets and dishes, thank you very much!") One step closer to my dream.
I never did become a foreign correspondent, not because I couldn't reach that goal, but because my dream changed. In my twenties I learned about the concept of family re-unions and that brought back the old dream, in an adjusted version. I wanted to see if I couldn't get my relatives to communicate. I wanted my own extended family to be one big happy family. This will forever be a dream. -- But wait! I have been given a new family since then. A nuclear family and a new, large extended family, namely YOU. I have been granted a suitable place, a lovely home, my dream house, in which I can have family re-unions any time. I love it! It's a fulfillable dream to have a house full of people - often. Do I still long for my relatives to get along? Sure I do. But I can't make them.
Dreams for the future? At this point I dream of having confidence to just step out and pursue that which I love. I dream of having the courage to deal a fatal blow to the fear that inhibits. I dream of looking squarely at my boldest dream and naming it without shame. | 
