Sometimes I am almost knocked sideways by the bits of my life that seem miraculous. Bouts of "How in the world did I get so lucky?", and such not only give me pause, they put a pause in my pauses, and reflecting on the circumstances that carried me from Point A to the Point B I live now is a practice in deep meditation on the wonders of the universe.

Case in point:

I am three months away from my fifty-sixth birthday, and last night I celebrated the second anniversary of my daughter's birth. Yep. I put two little candles on a sweet little cake and set it before my tiny little girl as the family sang "Happy Birthday, Dear Cj."

If that's not a miracle, I don't know what would qualify.

If someone had told me back in 1971 when I was icing the second birthday cake for my first child ... all of nineteen, I was ... that I'd be doing the same for another daughter some thirty-seven years later, I would have thought them bonkers. Grandchild, maybe, but my child? Impossible.

Sure, there are women who manage to get pregnant when even older than I am ... the British woman I wrote about last year, for example ... so older mommies of all sorts are certainly not unheard of, but that does nothing to lessen the impact being a mom at my age has had on me.

When Mark and I married, I was 43 with children in their twenties. I figured it was all over but the shoutin' on little kids. When our foster son entered our lives ... out of necessity, not design ... he came with the most surprising breath of fresh air. We were immediately addicted.

Then, through this miracle that is adoption, Sam became our son. Two years and some months later, we were on our way to Cambodia to meet our daughter.

Now, that thirteen-week-old baby who initially attached to my heart through a photo and has brought nothing but joy since the first moment I saw her face, heard her giggle and felt the touch of her long Cambodian baby fingers is two years old.

No matter how long I sit in front of my computer today, I will never be able to come up with words to begin to describe how amazing this child is, and how overcome I am with gratitude and awe for the miracle that brought her to me.