When we dream about angels, we have a tendency to dismiss whatever message we might be receiving. "It's only a dream," we say. "It doesn't mean anything.

" And yet, Scripture reminds us that Joseph, Christ's foster father, communicated and received instructions completely through angels who came to him in dreams. If a saint, why not any of us?.Sherry Moore Budniak of Lagrange, Kentucky, had never thought of dreams as special. She had just had her third daughter and also had gone through a tubal ligation, due to her rocky marriage.

She would not bring any more innocent children into this household, she had decided, where things were more like a nightmare than a dream. But her husband still wanted out, and soon left her.Sherry worked hard to keep her little family together, and try not to fall apart. However, there were, on occasion, little signs around her, events that told her she was not alone. "Once my four-year-old told me that she often saw two bright angels that followed me everywhere," Sherry says. "And sometimes I simply felt a presence around me.

" Often she prayed that God had not forgotten her, and would bring her a good man to love and appreciate her.Several years passed, and then Sherry met Chris, a wonderful man and an answer to her prayers. Soon they were married.

"Chris is a caring husband, and a wonderful stepfather to our daughters," Sherry says. "And he never once mentioned his regret at not having a child of his own." But Sherry knew how he felt. And when she consulted her physician, he believed that there was a chance Sherry could become pregnant again. "We began an agonizing journey," Sherry says.

"And finally things worked!" The couple was overjoyed. This baby would have all the love it needed, Sherry knew.One day in May 1998, Sherry came home from work unusually exhausted. She was midway through her pregnancy and had been feeling well. But now she went to bed, and fell into a deep sleep. At one point, she felt a light touch on her toe.

Immediately, she opened her eyes and looked at the clock. Three-thirty a.m. Then Sherry saw something else.

"There, standing by our bed was a very tall woman with dark wavy hair," she says. "It was an angel, and it seemed to be floating, and glowed the most glorious shade of blue. For some reason, I wasn't at all afraid." Nor was she in pain.Then the woman spoke. "Get up, Sherry.

We will have to try this again.".Sherry obeyed. Horrified, she discovered that she was bleeding profusely. Chris called her physician, and they rushed to the hospital. Sherry had miscarried.

Furthermore, she had been near death. "If you hadn't awakened when you did," the doctor told Sherry, "you would have bled to death.".Sherry hadn't awakened by accident---she was sure of it. Nor was her vision just a dream---it was far too clear. But she was heartsick too.

Had it been wrong of her to try and have another baby? Should they abandon their dream?.One night, she remembered something. "My angel said, 'WE will have to try this again"," she told Chris.

"I think, if we do try, it will work this time.".Her husband wasn't so sure. But his longing for a child overcame his objections. And nineteen months later---just before Christmas---Chris and Sherry brought their new baby daughter home.

During her second pregnancy, Sherry never saw the dark-haired woman. "But I will remember her until I die, and treasure the experience," she says. "I fully expect to see her again someday.".

Copyrighted 2006. For more examples of God's love, check the website at www.joanwanderson.com.

By: Joan Wester Anderson