You think you know me right now. You’ve watched me at Brimstone, you see the way I dress, the way I carry myself. I’m a bad ass, tough girl who isn’t going to let anyone close. And I must be one helluva fuck because there’s no way I’m going to let any man dominate me. That’s what you see, and what you expect, but you should learn to always expect the unexpected. And you should also learn that appearances are deceiving more often than not. First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Talisin Logan MacLeod. Yes, I come from the same clan as Connor and Duncan MacLeod, the legends of the highlands, but I am not Immortal or anything that could really spark a legend. I’m just a Fallen Angel that's trying to figure out this whole living and loving thing. Don’t ask about the Angel part now. We’ll get to that part later. All good things come to those who wait, or some shit like that. I should warn you, before we go any further, that I am not a natural born storyteller. That was never my forte in this life or the one previous to it. I am now, and always have been, a do-er instead of a say-er. I prefer to let my actions speak for me, although, in this medium, I guess I have no choice except to try and use the words that’re so difficult for me to find sometimes. I promise to do my best, but you’ll have to bear with me. I think we need to start off with my parents. They are the people who brought me into this world. My parents were both Scottish and living in Scotland. That was their home, and the home of their ancestors. They strongly felt the connection to the land, and the connection to the ways of the past. The legends of Scotland were their legends and their beliefs. I guess it was a very happy day when the Campbell clan was once again joined with the MacLeod clan. There was a lot of family around to celebrate the union and to bless it. Everyone was certain that the young couple would have a very long, and happy life blessed with lots of children. It was three years into the marriage when my older sibling, Trevelyan, came into the world. My parents were extremely happy to have a healthy baby boy, especially my father. He had always wanted a son to carry on the MacLeod name, as if there aren’t enough MacLeods already doing that. But that was his dream, and he saw it come true when the doctor handed their firstborn to my mother. Three years later there were more celebrations when I was born on November 28, 1981. Once again, my parents were given a very healthy baby, but obviously, this time they got a girl. My mother couldn’t have been happier with my birth. She’d always wanted a daughter, and she thought it was perfect that I came second. That way I would always be protected by my older brother. Trey has never let her down in that regard. My first memory is of my big brother protecting me. It had been a beautiful spring day shortly after my third birthday and our parents had taken us out shopping. We were in a fairly large department store. It was kinda like a Sears, one of those stores that has something for everyone in the family. Our parents had split up because Daddy needed to buy some tools, and Mama wanted to look at clothing for Trey and me. I hadn’t meant to wander away, but I saw a toy across the aisle that looked really cool, so I went to check it out. Trey came with me so that I wouldn’t get lost or taken by someone. He was only six, but I think he was too keenly aware of the dangers of the world. I remember that the toy was awesome, but further down the aisle was a doll that was even better. So I ran off to look at that. I remember that Trey took my hand and tried to lead me back to Mama. He kept saying that we had to go back, but I didn’t listen. I kept taking my hand back and trying to get the doll out of the box. I guess Mama didn’t notice that Trey and me weren’t with her when she went to look at something else. We were always good, quiet kids, so it wasn’t unusual for there to be silent children following our parents through stores. The only times we were rowdy were when we went to playgrounds or carnivals. And sometimes when we were at home. But Mama went to look at something else in another department without realizing her children weren’t with her. It must have been a few minutes after that when Trey finally got me to leave the toy department to go back with Mama. That’s when we became lost. Trey took my hand and led me back to where Mama had been looking at clothes. Mama wasn’t where we had left her, but Trey stayed calm and led me through the entire department, searching for Mama without letting me know what he was doing. At that point I was under the impression that Trey knew exactly what was going on. I didn’t start getting worried until we moved out to the main aisle and Trey started looking around uncertainly. That’s when I started crying and calling for Mama. Trey tried to calm me down, but that just made me more upset. I remember looking up through my tears at a man coming towards us. He was a dirty looking man, and I hid behind my big brother. The man told Trey that we needed to go with him. He said he’d help us find our parents, but Trey refused. He assured the man that we weren’t lost. After a couple minutes, the dirty man left and Trey led me to a big intersection in the middle of the store. He told me not to worry, because Mama and Daddy would find us there. So that’s where we stood and waited. It took Mama and Daddy about 20 minutes to find us in the middle of the store, but when they did, we were scooped up and cuddled. I was scolded for leaving Mama’s side, but Trey was praised for being level headed and going someplace that would be easy for them to find us. He was also praised for keeping his baby sister safe from any harm that might have come looking for me. I didn’t mind being scolded. I was crying too hard and holding onto Mama for dear life. I never wanted to leave her side again, and I never got lost in a store again, either. That was all it took for me to learn my lesson… That, and the fact that Trey was more vigilant with me after that incident. Nothing really interesting happened to me again after that until I was about 6 years old. Sure, there was the first day of school, and as traumatizing as it was, it’s probably not as interesting to you as it was to me. I mean, I was terrified of all those kids. I’d never seen that many kids in one place before. And then there was the learning part. I was totally unprepared for the sitting in one place and paying attention to something. But I did find a love for play dough. It was really neat when you could mix the colors into something pretty, and it didn’t taste too bad, either. But it was the following year when my mom got pregnant again. Mama was probably about 4 months along when her and Daddy finally sat Trey and me down to tell us. Trey was fairly happy about having another sibling. He says it’s because they wouldn’t let him have a puppy, but I think he really enjoys being a big brother. Me, on the other hand, I wasn’t so happy. I stormed off to my room and pitched a total fit for about three hours. My temper tantrum only ended then because I had exhausted myself. A couple times Trey tried to calm me down, but then I’d kick him or hit him until he left. Mama and Daddy just stayed away until I settled down. Then they came in to talk to me. I wasn’t scolded for acting out, because I took it to my room. But I was assured that they would still love me just as much as they always had. They also addressed my issues about no longer being “the baby.” I was told that I’d always be their baby girl, but that I had to give up the title to my new sibling. I was not happy, and there were several more fits during the next six months, but gradually I got over it. Trey and me weren’t allowed in the hospital room when Mama went into labor. We were stuck out in the waiting room with our extended family. Everyone was excited about the new baby being born, but all I wanted was to go home. I didn’t understand why I had to be stuck in a boring waiting room all day just because we were getting a new baby. It was 18 boring hours before Tirion came into the world. We didn’t get to see the baby until she was all cleaned up, but she was still all red and wrinkly. I thought she was ugly as sin with her bald head and scrunched up face, but everyone else thought she was the most beautiful child in the world. Grandma assured me that I was more beautiful when I had been born, and I prayed that I hadn’t been that wrinkly. A couple days later I was finally able to hold my baby sister for the first time. She screamed, I jumped, she wailed, and Mama took her back. I didn’t even look at Tirion for the next week. Gradually, over the course of the next few months, I learned that Tirion actually wasn’t that bad. I was allowed to help take care of her and before I knew it, I had actually come to love her. It was probably the first time that she smiled at me that did me in. Although, my baby sister was a serious pain in the ass once she learned how to crawl. And she was even worse when she learned how to walk. That’s when I started to appreciate how much Trey loved me, despite everything that I’d done to him when I was little. This is the part where something life altering comes in. For my 8th birthday my parents gave me my very first camera. It wasn’t really anything special. There was only one button on it, and you had to actually buy the flashes for it, as well as the film, but it was the first time I was allowed to take pictures of things. I asked my parents when I could use it, and they said, “Any time you want.” I was blown away by the new ability to take pictures of the things I deemed important. And my father promised to keep me in film as long as I was taking good pictures. The first picture I ever took was of my big brother sleeping. It was so cute because he had his thumb in his mouth, and he was all curled around this big teddy bear. I still have the picture in one of my albums. My second picture was of my baby sister. She was laying on the floor looking up at me, and I snapped the picture just as she smiled at me. I fell in love with my camera, and with taking pictures of the things that were important to me. You’ll never know how thankful I am for that camera. Not only did it give me a direction in life, but it also allowed me to take hundreds of pictures of my family. That’ll be important to remember a little later on in this story. The next major thing in my life didn’t happen until I was 14 years old. That’s when my life was ripped apart, never to be put back together fully again. I was just starting to get interested in boys, and my mom was just starting to become my best friend. She loved listening to the gossip from school, and she always wanted to know who I was interested in. More than once she gave me pointers about how to impress a cute guy. I went to her whenever I needed advice, and I was never disappointed. More often than not, my mom took the high road of morality, but every once in a while she’d go for the glory and give me a real zinger of an idea. She was a perfect balance of what a woman should be like. But then she was taken away from me… It was a typical Sunday night in the middle of spring when it happened. Trey was babysitting Tirion and me while our parents went out to dinner with one of Daddy’s coworkers. They were only supposed to be gone until 8:00. They had promised they would be back by then. We were supposed to watch a movie together before bed. At five minutes past eight, I was getting worried. Mama and Daddy were never late, especially when they made a promise. Trey kept telling me not to worry because I’d just upset Tiri. Then 9:00 came and Trey started to get worried. Tiri was crying because she wanted to watch her movie, and she wanted to see Mama and Daddy. She was only 7 years old, so it wasn’t really her fault that she was concerned with the lesser things. At 10:00 we put Tiri to bed and Trey tried to convince me to go to bed, but I refused. I said that I’d risk getting yelled at by Mama and Daddy, but I wasn’t gonna go to bed until they were safely home. It was 11:30 when a police officer showed up at our door. He said that our parents had been killed in a car accident, although it looked like foul play. The brake line was severed and they’d gone off a cliff into the loch. I dropped down to my knees and just screamed. Trey went down with me, but he didn’t scream. He just stiffly held me while I sobbed into his shoulder. Tiri woke up when I screamed, and she came downstairs to see what was going on. No one told her what happened, but she figured it out somehow, because she started sobbing and crying for Mama and Daddy. Trey and me pulled her over to us and the three of us cried for a good long time. Then the officer said that he had to call someone to come get us. That’s when Trey jumped into action. He told the officer that he was almost 18 and capable of taking care of his two younger sisters. Trey thinking fast like that is probably the only reason the three of us are still together now. Otherwise we probably would have been sent in three different directions. I don’t remember the details of the funeral, or even really the broad strokes of it. I do remember that Trey and me picked out everything. Our parents had enough life insurance to pay for their funerals, but only just barely. We did everything as economically as we possibly could, with the hopes that there’d be a little money left to get us through a month. There were a lot of family members who showed up at the funeral, and a lot of our parents’ friends, but none of them offered to help us out in any way. They just shook their heads at the three poor orphan children, and then walked away to their own little lives. From that point on I had no use for the rest of my family. If they couldn’t care enough to help us even a little, then they meant less than nothing to me. It hurt at first, but you get over it after a while… Or maybe you never get over it. You just learn how to deal with it. At 17 years old, my brother dropped out of school so that he could support us. Our house was paid for, so all he had to worry about were the other bills and food, but that’s still a lot when you’re working for minimum wage. I would have gotten a job then, too, but I was too young. I did, however, take up the responsibilities of cooking our meals and taking care of Tirion. Every night I made sure she had a snack and her bath before bed. Then I’d read a story to her and tuck her in. I was only 14 years old, but I felt like I was so much older. I know it wasn’t fair in the slightest, but I loved my baby sister too much to take away her childhood. Even though I felt like an adult at 14, I didn’t start noticing my hormones for another year. And it shocked me to discover that the person who aroused them most was Trey. He didn’t even have to be doing anything for me to start squirming. Just the sight of him sprawled on the couch gave me erotic visions of riding him like a pony. The Church teaches that incest is evil and that you’ll go to hell for that mortal sin. And parents teach their children that those kinds of touches between siblings are also bad. It’s a crime in the very least. If our parents had been alive, it probably would have taken longer for one of us to act on our feelings for each other, but without anyone to stop us, Trey and me became intimate when I was 15 years old. Neither on of us were expecting it to happen. It was just a regular night of being exhausted after taking care of everything we had to do. Cuddling and talking turned to kissing, and then that led to physical intimacy. Neither one of us regretted it afterwards. In fact, the relief that came afterwards was amazing. It was like we’d been waiting to be one for eternity, and then we finally were and nothing was ever going to be the same again. I started working as soon as I turned 16. I wanted to work full time, but Trey insisted that I finish high school and go on to collage. So, I worked every hour that my boss would give me, without interfering with school. We needed every penny that we could bring in so that we could have food on the table. I can’t tell you how hard it is to go to school full time, work part time, and still take care of a 9-year-old child. Tiri had everything she ever wanted, though. Somehow we managed to keep her dressed in the clothes she liked, with the cool shoes, and to have presents under the tree at Christmas time. But it only happened because Trey and me wanted everything to be as normal as possible for Tiri. My first job was working at our community's church. Father Kincade oversaw the running of all tasks in the church. When I first started there I was just running errands for everyone. I was a go-for. I don't know what it was about me, but Father Kincade liked me. He liked me a little too much. My first three months there were wonderful, but after that the priest started taking me into his office alone. The sex crimes against me were numerous, but I stayed silent because of his threats. He swore that he'd get Tiri taken away from us. He'd accuse us of abusing her sexually. He said the police would believe him because he was a priest. And he said that he'd make sure Trey lost his job, too. And that we wouldn't find jobs anywhere in Scotland. Those threats kept me silent for 13 months, until Trey found out that I was pregnant. There was a rather large drama around the revelation that I was pregnant. I was 17 years old. Trey and me had been intimate for about two years (without any sort of protection), and I hadn’t gotten pregnant. So, when I discovered that I was pregnant, I assumed that the baby was Father Kincade’s. I was devastated that he’d gotten me pregnant and Trey hadn’t. I was also very scared of what the future had in store for my family with a baby on the way that we couldn’t support. I remember telling Trey that I was pregnant. I just sobbed as I spilled about the priest abusing me and raping me. Trey was just as devastated as I was. He was supposed to be my protector and he felt that he’d failed in a monumental way. No matter how many times I reassured Trey that it wasn’t his fault, he still blamed himself for not knowing. After Trey found out about the pregnancy, he forbid me to go back to work. But I did one last time, and Father Kincade did rape me once more. I went back to work without Trey knowing. And I went knowing what was going to happen. But I was prepared with a plan. I left work at the end of the day and drove to the hospital. Once there I submitted to a rape kit, and had the police come to take a statement. That day I pressed charges against Father Kincade for raping me. While I was at the hospital I also went through a prenatal test known as an amniocentesis. They take a sample of the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby, and with that they’re able to do a paternity test. I was expecting the test to show that Father Kincade was the baby’s father, but it turned up negative for his DNA. That’s when I realized that the baby was Trey’s. We were both shocked with the news, but we were also happy that the baby was ours and not the product of rape. All of that evidence that was collected was used to convict the good priest of rape and sexual assault. And it also opened the door for Trey and I to sue the parish for the trauma I went through. We didn’t get much money. But it was enough to cover the costs of the baby when he was born. And it covered the funeral expenses… It was April 20, 1999, when our son came into the world. We’d been told a couple months earlier that he wouldn’t live very long after he was born. His heart wasn’t formed correctly, and he was missing the entire top right chamber. They said his heart wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of pumping blood to his entire body outside of the womb. We heard our son’s wail of protest as he came into the world, and then the doctor placed him in my arms. He was so beautiful. When he looked up at me, I couldn’t help feeling like I was soon going to lose someone extremely important to me. Trey and I named the baby Evan Patrick MacLeod. Our son only left my arms for a couple short times. The first was so the nurses could get his birth stats. He was 7lbs, 9oz, and 20 inches long. They cleaned him up and brought him back right away. And then Trey held Evan for a little while. We were both holding him when he took his last breath. And my heart felt like it shattered in that instant. Evan was born at 4:29 in the afternoon. And he passed away at 7:58 that evening. We only knew him for three and a half hours, but we’ll both mourn him the rest of our lives. Somehow I graduated from school right on time. The last day of school I told my new boss, the amazing Father Avery, that I wanted to work full time from then on, and he gave me the hours that I wanted. I still managed to make it to my graduation, but I went directly from there to work. For the next two years I worked full time while going to college full time. Now that was hard. Somehow I managed to keep my grades up and get promoted to manager of the whole church, which meant better money. It was during those two years that the dreams started. I never remembered the dreams when I woke up, but they were the most peaceful dreams in the world. Every morning I would wake up feeling this profound sense of loss. It felt even worse than losing my parents. And every morning I’d cry for a good half hour before I could drag myself out of bed. At first the dreams were spread out. I’d have a dream once every three weeks or so. But, gradually, they started coming more often. I had just turned 20 when the dreams finally came to their grand finale. I remember that I was having a good dream about my parents when an Angel came to me. She woke me up from the dream and said that she had something to show me. I agreed and she took me from my bed. Together we flew up through the sky and to a place of perfection. I’ll never forget the feeling of flying. The feeling of the wind in my face and through my hair. The feeling of weightlessness in that Angel’s arms. It was the most free I’ve ever felt in my life. Then there was the feeling of perfection. She told me that we were in Heaven and that everything would be explained to me. Before she could start explaining, I asked if I could see my parents and Evan. I’ll never forget that kind smile or the nod, and then my parents were standing in front of me with Mama cradling Evan in her arms. I sobbed as I hugged them, and I wished that I’d never wake up again. But then the Angel told me that they had to go, and I had to learn about what I was. I know you’re not supposed to be able to feel pain in Heaven, but I did. It felt like my heart was ripped away from me when she took my parents and son from me. How’s that for ironic? Pain in the most wonderful place in the universe. The Angel gave me a few minutes to adjust to the loss again, and then she started telling me about what I was. She told me that I was an Angel who had been in the service of God. I had been one of the Powers - Warrior Angels who fought for God. She showed me my entire existence as an Angel, and I marveled at everything I had seen and done. There were battles bigger than the battles for Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings, and there were demons scarier than anything that Stan Winston could ever dream of coming up with. Then there was the perfect love that I felt while I served my God. I knew that I was doing something important. After everything had been revealed to me, I asked the Angel why I had decided to Fall, and she said one simple word. Love. I had Fallen so that I could experience the love of humans. So that I could experience the one thing God had given them that he had left out of us. The Angel told me that I had already found my other half, and that he was in bed next to me. She said that Trey was the other half of my soul, and that he was being Awakened at the same moment. We’d never be parted again, and we’d spend the rest of eternity together on the mortal plain. We’d never be allowed beyond the gates of Heaven again. When all was said and done, I was left in my bed at dawn, and I felt so conflicted. I sobbed for hours over the sense of loss. The loss of my parents again, the loss of Evan, and the loss of losing Heaven for eternity. I sobbed because of fear about living forever while almost everyone around me grew older and died. And I was devastated with the idea that I would one day lose my baby sister. But then Tiri came into my room and crawled into my bed. She buried her dark head in my chest and she hugged me. At that moment, I would have done anything for my baby sister. If she had asked me to bring down every star in the sky, I would have done it without question, just because I knew that she loved me. While that day was definitely not one of my best, it was the beginning of something else. At that point I knew that I needed to get out of Scotland. I needed to move to a bigger world, and I needed to do something to make myself happy. I needed to do something so that we wouldn’t have to struggle the rest of our lives. So I convinced Trey that we needed to move to Canada. I promised that, while it seemed like an insane thing to do, it would all work out for the best. And it has. It didn’t take me long at all to get into a wonderful college in Calgary. I finished my degree in photography, and I suddenly became a sought after photographer. At first I didn’t have a lot of celebrities on my list, but I have done shoots for Cindy Crawford, Nikki Taylor, and Britney Spears all in my first year out of college. There have been plenty of celebrities since then, but that’s not where my passion lies. My hope was to eventually trade in the stars of Hollywood for regular people with extraordinary light in them. That dream was realized just a couple years after I got out of college. Trey and me never talked much about the visit from the Angels that night in Scotland. We acknowledged it and reveled in the fact that we’d never be parted, but it wasn’t something we talked about. It wasn’t until one night after our move to Canada that we were both visited at the same time. We were both taken back to Heaven to have wondrous events of the past opened up to us. We were shown lifetimes together from the beginning of our souls’ journeys through time. We had been great heroes on another planet. Our achievements there were still remembered, to this day, on that planet. Then we’d become Angels together, and we’d fought side by side. Our souls were so connected that they could never be broken apart. We were shown that we’d never have to worry about losing the other. And we wouldn’t have to worry about losing Tiri, either. She was about to be shown her true nature. The Angel didn’t tell us when. And she warned us against giving Tiri any information about what was coming. Then we were taken back to our beds to wake up and revel in the new realization that we’d really been together since the beginning of time. And we’d stay together until the end of time. I can’t describe how wonderful it is to live without any real worries. I had Trey, and I wouldn’t lose my baby sister, either. I was making enough money that I had managed to sock away more than two million dollars. And that was on top of what I spent for my share of rent, utilities, clothing, and food. Life was honestly really good for the first time since I was a child. And yes, there was Brimstone. It was my only real vice that Trey never understood. A couple times a week I’d pull out the black leather and stiletto boots and I’d go visit hell for a few hours. I think part of it was knowing that I could walk out whenever I wanted. I didn’t have to stay and suffer if I didn’t feel like it. I just didn’t know that there was a real hell at home that was waiting to welcome me with open arms. Somewhere along the line, I’m still not sure where, Tiri was Awakened and Trey and I weren’t there to tell her everything was all right. And, for reasons I am unaware of, the Angel didn’t tell Tiri that we had already Awakened. So our baby sister became immortal and thought that she was going to outlive both her older siblings. I know that it was terrifying when I went through that. And I know it was only because of Trey that I made it through without problems. But whatever the case, she turned to drugs. My baby sister isn’t one to do anything small. When she does something, she does it big. Her drug addiction was no different. We didn’t actually find out about it until it was almost too late. She came in high one night and she was being loud. That’s the only reason we caught her. And when we confronted her, she threw a brick of heroin at my face. The bag exploded on impact, and I inhaled a very deep lungful of poison into my system. Trey called the paramedics immediately, but by the time they got there I was convulsing on the floor. It was an OD that I only survived because of my immortality. An OD of heroin isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you. No, there are other things that the drug can do to an unsuspecting body. Shortly after the convulsions started, my heart and brain mutually decided to go on strike. The doctors called it a massive heart attack and stroke. They managed to stop the heart attack before it could completely ruin my heart. And they got the stroke under control, too. I was left in a pretty bad state, though. But the nightmare doesn’t end there, no… To pay for her drug habit, Tiri had taken out credit cards in both my name and Trey’s. In the end we were in debt to the tune of three million dollars. That was everything Trey and I had managed to save over the course of many years. The sense of betrayal when I found out the extent of the lies was beyond anything I thought I could feel. I didn’t think my siblings could ever evoke that from me. But still, I tried helping her. We both did. And we found out the hard way that, when someone is hell bent on destruction, there’s really nothing you can do except to stand back and watch the train wreck. As I said, the heart attack and stroke did damage. I watched Tiri’s train wreck, and then had to focus on getting my health back. Trey did wonders for me – he used his healing abilities to take away a large portion of the damage. But he’s just one very young Fallen Angel. He couldn’t heal everything. I spent two weeks in the hospital. I went through physical therapy and speech therapy. I had to learn how to use my right side again. I also had to learn how to form certain sounds again so I could speak properly. The speech therapy lasted about a month, with Trey helping me out every once in a while now when I get stuck. It took another three months of therapy before I had my right side back to where it was before the stroke. And then – with a new lease on life and a fresh outlook on the fragility of life, I started in on the next chapter of my life.... It’s never been a secret that I want to change the world and make it a better place. It was while I was healing from the heart attack and stroke that I came to a decision about how I wanted to go about changing the world – I wanted to do it through my art. Through the talent that God gave me with a camera. It took more than a year of healing before I felt strong enough to go through with my plan. The full plan was to travel around the world – to all the poor countries and photograph the children. I wanted the world to see those children, and learn how they could help them. And while my heart couldn’t handle the whole trip, Trey and I did put together a trip to Cambodia. The reason for that country being chosen was from a dream I had. A dream in which I was holding a small baby boy from that country – his dark eyes were looking up at me, and it was like he could look into my soul. He was the child that I was meant to save from a life of poverty. So we went to Cambodia with the dual purpose of helping the world and saving one small child. It was November of 2008 when we arrived in Cambodia. Trey spent the first two weeks following me around as I photographed the children of the area we were in. And every night I know he said a prayer of thanks when I made it into our bed without having had any issues with my heart. Over the course of those two weeks, we must have visited about three orphanages to no avail. I was beginning to think that I wouldn’t find my little boy. But then, on the 10th of the month, we walked into one last orphanage and there he was. I saw him sleeping in a crib, and I recognized him immediately as the child from my dreams. One of the nurses placed him in my arms, and in that instant everything was right in the world. At the time, he was just barely three months old - born on August 8, 2008. And, like in my dreams, he had the darkest brown eyes I'd ever seen. He was beautiful. There were some times of uncertainty after we were told that it was okay to take our son back to our hotel room. Trey and I had already decided that we were staying until the adoption was finalized. But sometimes the government can be slow about issuing adoption papers and passports. We weren’t sure how long we were going to be staying in the country, and we could only hope that everything would be done before our own passports ran out. Apparently someone was watching out for us, though. Either that, or we greased the right palms to make the wheels work faster – because it didn’t take long at all for us to be granted everything we needed. Then, with our son and all the photographs that I’d taken, we went back home to Canada. Trey and I named our son Damian Hunter MacLeod. He doesn’t look much like a MacLeod, but he’s being raised with the legends of our people, as well as everything we can tell him about the people he comes from. At first it was difficult to get used to having a baby in the house. To having our schedules dictated by this little person, but every day it got a little bit easier. It helped that Damian was a very happy baby and didn’t cry very often. Together Trey and me watched our son learn how to smile, sit up, crawl, and walk. Every day was a new adventure. But, as any parent can tell you, the days and weeks go by quickly, and the months and years go by even faster. Damian is now almost 9 years old. He’s been our only child up to this point, although there has been one miscarriage since we got him. That was devastating, but my doctor said my body was still healing from all the damage it went through with the heroin overdose. Now, with an almost 9 year old son, Trey and me are expecting our second child. I didn’t realize I was pregnant until I noticed my clothes not fitting properly. I went to the doctor and he said that I was in my third month of pregnancy. Trey and me both have mixed feeling about this new development. We don’t want to lose another baby. We don’t want anything to happen to me, either. While I’m confident that I’ll come through this okay, I’m more concerned about our baby. We don’t know if we’re having a boy or girl yet. We do know that we’ll have a Christmas birth if all goes according to plan. But all we want is a healthy baby in the end. That’s where things are now. A lot of uncertainty, but we’ll get through this together — just like we have everything else in our lives. As long as we have each other, we’ll be okay.