What are the

odds of this being just a coincidence?

About a month ago, I ran into Jean Ann, an Anderson cousin.  (At Costco, of course).  I really didn't know Jean Ann very well growing up, because we didn't live by each other or get together often. (Charlene reminded me that we did live next door to each other for a while.  I guess I was too young to remember that).  My dad and her mom were brother and sister.   I've gotten to know her better during the last 20 years through family reunions.    She and her husband are very nice people.

Anyway, as we talked I found that she has a son, Matt, that lives in Medford (which is where Tiffany lives).  The next time I talked with Tiffany, I asked her  if she recognized his name.  She said she didn't think so.  But then she asked, "Is he by chance a dentist?"  I said told her he was.  She said, in amazement, that maybe she did know his wife.  Tiffany said that several times she had seen a woman around Medford that looked like a girl that she went to middle school with.  Yet she had discounted it, thinking it couldn't be her.  Finally, after seeing her at a play area in the mall, she asked her if she was Laura.  It turned out it was the same girl.  They hadn't seen each other since middle school, but they both remembered each other. 

Anyway, she had told Tiffany that her husband was a dentist in Ashland and that both or their families lived in Orem.  They exchanged phone numbers so they could maybe get together some time.  All that had taken place shortly before I asked her if she recognized my cousin's son's name.   So then the name clicked, and she realized that Laura was married to my cousin's son (which makes them 2nd cousins). 

Tiffany gave Laura a call and told her of the family connection.  She invited them and their 3 children over for dinner and family home evening. She said they had such a nice time and the kids had fun with each other.  For the family home evening lesson, Tiffany showed the family history scrapbook she had made which has a picture of her Grandpa Anderson and his Grandmother as children.  She also told a little bit of the family history.   He didn't know much of the history, and took the book home to make copies of it.  They mentioned that their children really missed being around all their grandparents and cousins, as they all live in Utah.  Tiffany said she told their kids that they don't need to feel left out, because now they have some cousins close by, too.  

I'm not sure if this makes any sense the way I've written it, but it makes a lot of sense that this was not just a coincidence.  And, I am so grateful that Tiffany followed up with an invitation.  I feel like "coincidences" like these are guided by loving, but unseen, hands.