Background information: I just recently received information for contacting my first son, whom I gave up for adoption when I was 16 years old. I have been struggling with whether I should contact him or let it go and if I do contact him, how and what do I say?

My Dream: I have the son who I did raise with me. In the dream he is only about 3 or 4 years old (he's 27 today). He has some kind of metal things on his hands. I figure the only way to get the metal off his hands is to cut his hands off at the wrist.

So I use a pair of pruning shears -- big ones. It cuts them swiftly and cleanly. All I can see is the clean, not really bloody, stumps at the end of his arms where his hands were.

At first I believe what I'm telling him is the truth. Then it dawns on me that there really is no way that I can put his hands back on him.

I wake up then, and I'm horrified that I could do such an awful thing to my son, or anyone for that matter. I woke up crying.

—Wynette, 48, married, female, Santa Rosa, CA

Hi Wynette—

We know this dream touched a delicate spot, and we all sympathize with your tears. After many years, the painful decision you made -- to give up your child for adoption -- still weighs upon your heart.

Your dream includes a montage of images that are linked by the background you provide. The child who appears as your son (with "metal things" on his hands) almost certainly represents the "bind" you were in when you discovered you were a mother at age 16. At the time, you chose to "sever" the relationship you had with the baby, to provide him with a better life in the hands of a more prepared couple. The pruning shears in your dream represent this decision. You made a "clean break" with your newborn, and the child was released from your hands.

Over thirty years later, you have received information that will allow you to contact your child. A natural instinct drives you to repair a connection that was surrendered long ago. Your dream does not give instruction whether you should re-open this relationship -- to the contrary, it simply shows that a full restoration of this relationship never can be made. Accordingly, if you do choose to open this door, you will need to release the past that you did not share together, and be willing to accept an uncertain future.