text: "Tell me the story of how we met," she asked softly. I smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Okay, but we have to sleep afterwards. It's getting late." "Sure." She snuggled up in my lap and gazed up adoringly into my eyes. "Well, once upon a time not too long ago," I began, re-enacting the scene with a doll and a teddy bear, "there lived a princess, just 10 years old. She was trapped in a castle, cursed to sleep by an evil old witch. Only true love's kiss would waken the princess." I laid the doll flat on her back, pointing the right arm of the teddy bear at her threateningly. "Did anyone try to awaken the princess?" she asked breathlessly. Lamplight sparkled in her caramel eyes, growing wider by the minute. I caressed her soft, silky hair, letting the touch linger. "Yes, hundreds. All claiming to be the world's noblest warriors or whatever." Rolling my eyes, I continued. "They all tried and failed." She giggled. "Did any women try?" I paused for a while. "Yes, they did, but discreetly, because at that time it was still taboo for these things to be publicly known. They all failed anyway, though." I pressed the snout of the teddy bear to the face of the doll. Nothing happened. "And then what happened next?" "And then." I looked deep into her soft, honey golden eyes, and a tender smile crossed my face involuntarily. "And then, on the princess' 30th birthday, someone came. It was a little orphan girl." Here, I deliberately paused. "Go on!" she begged, tugging at my shirt. “The little girl had wandered over from a nearby village. She had been playing in the forest and gotten lost. Seeing the castle, she had decided to go in and see if anyone could direct her back. And so, wandering from room to room, she finally found the princess.” She grabbed the bear by the scruff of his neck and made him walk over with a bouncy gait, stomping over the “hills” and “valleys” in the sheets. I laughed and took the bear from her. "The little girl stared at her wonderingly. At that moment, she felt sorry for the poor cursed princess. 'I do hope you find someone to help you,' she murmured, and gave an empathetic kiss on the princess' forehead.” I made the second bear kiss the sleeping doll. "And the princess woke up!" she squealed happily, snatching the sleeping doll up into the air and tossing it up to the ceiling. “Mama!” the doll cried out in astonishment, the eyelids open. "It was true love after all, wasn't it?" My vision suddenly went blurry, and I tasted the salt of my own tears on my lips. "Yes, honey, it was. I do love you, very much. I've always wanted a daughter and now I've got you. I knew you’d be my daughter the minute I woke up and saw your precious eyes looking into mine." "Please don't cry, Mommy," she pleaded anxiously. "I love you more than anything else in the world, okay? You know that, right?" I folded her tightly into a massive bear hug. "Yes, dear, I do.