nightmares and dreams

what do they mean? sometimes the meaning is so transparent and other times I just wake up to "what the hell was that????" I don't know why I always seem to be a child in my dreams and why I always seem lost . I wish someone could tell my why I have this recurrent dream/nightmare or why I can't go back to sleep after I have a nightmare. My daughter who is 8, is the same...she is fearful and full of anxiety(its hereditary) and can't go a night without painfully searching for me in the middle of the night .Like I might just disappear. maybe she knows something I don't.

this morning I woke...

I was on a bus, separated from my family , all of them. I was little like maybe 11 or so. I was so scared . we had been rounded up and taken to a farm. we were given small cubicles to live in and I couldn't find L or H. I was so scared and tried to find them. I finally found L(as a baby) lying on the floor in another room with other crying children. I scooped her up and then H came to me. I was wearing a ripped dress, i think. L was wearing a small dress that barely cover her dipe. H was dirty and clothing worn and dirty. I picked them both up and asked the man in charge if I promised to look after them , If i could keep them with me. He said yes. I went back to my cubicle and waited , it seemed like forever . then we headed our to "work" . It was physical labor of some sort. Possibly farming? or picking things? Then we went back to the cubicles. Many were crying and some were just trying to get away. I was trying my best to be perfect. closing drawers in the kitchen as I passed through and picking up things along my way. I went to the wrong cubicle first. Seemed like a classroom of sorts, then found my way to where i belonged , I think. I was so lost. I held my babies and tried so hard to keep them quiet. It was awful.