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I once had a dream. It was of a little boy, maybe five or six years old. He was standing at the end of the hallway in pajamas that were slightly over-sized. He was carrying a blanket and stuffed animal and was emerging from the bathroom. It was very late at night, and he should have been in bed, but a trip to the bathroom got in the way of that. In my dream, I remember him looking at me with tired and groggy eyes. I looked back to him and said, "I'll see you in the morning." This little boy, my son, looked at me and said, "I love you, daddy." Those words, those four wonderfully beautiful words, make all the trials and tribulations of being a parent worth it.

When my son lost all the language he once had, I was left wondering if I would ever hear those words. Children who cannot talk have other ways of showing their parents that they love them, but hearing those words takes that warm fuzzy feeling to new places. When my son started recovering and gaining his language back, I realized that that dream may become a reality. And it did.

A few days ago, I was leaving for work (about 4:30AM), and I heard a door opening. I looked down the hallway to see my son walking into the bathroom, so I waited. When he came back out, he had his stuffed Nemo toy with him. He looked at me, and I looked back at him and said, "I'll see you when I get home from work." He looked back at me with tired eyes and said, "I love you, daddy." My heart skipped a beat.

I know this wasn't exactly how the dream went, but it was close enough. Everything seemed so surreal. He's said those words to me before, but when he said them to me on that morning, it reminded me of the dream I once had. And now that dream has become a reality.