All week I look forward to Shabbat - the Jewish Sabbath - which starts on Friday evening (18 minutes before sundown) and ends one hour after sundown (when 3 stars come out in the sky). Shabbat is an experience. It's amazing. It's everything I could describe and different for everyone. And if you've never had a "Shabbat experience," then you probably don't understand what I'm talking about, but try to imagine. Shabbat is the day when things stop - when I finally get some peace, some really good family time and some reflection. I don't go to work, I don't check my email and I'm not disturbed by telemarketers because I don't answer my phone.

When I'm having the worst and longest week in the world, all I'm doing is counting down the days until the week is over and I sit down to a lovely Shabbat dinner and start my weekend. There's the week, and then there is Shabbat.

Though people in different branches of Judaism follow different traditions, we are all united on this one day each week. And no matter how good or bad a week we had, we eventually do make it to light candles on Friday night and start Shabbat.

So too with becoming a parent. I talk to people who blinked once and conceived and those who have been on the long road for years. People who have just got their paperworked logged in to the Chinese authorities and people who have just returned home with their daughter. We all walk a different road and our children may look different, have different stories and different baggage. But along the journey when things are rough, as hard as it is so many, many times, you just have to believe that you will get there.

The journey to parenthood is a straightforward footpath for some and the world's largest rollercoaster for others, but we still get to the same place in the end. And you will get there.