Conincidence? I Think Not.

Allow me, if you will, one more story of God's great provision and faithfulness. As Eric mentioned, Maggie and I are currently in Nashville visiting his family members. We are becoming more acutely aware every day of the dwindling time we have to spend with family before departing (especially since we got our tickets!! Departure date for Nairobi is Dec 9!), and so this has been a great chance for the McLaughlins to see a bit more of Maggie. Some people we know that we have already said goodbye to for the last time for the next 2-3 years. Some people we know we may not see again this side of heaven. And some people we hope to see one more time before we go, but don't know how in the world it will work out. My brother Eric is one of those people--we last saw him in early July, and I was starting to think it was going to be a long time before Maggie saw her godfather again.

Those of you who know Eric (brother Eric, not husband Eric), know that he's been working at an organic farm community for developmentally disabled adults. He loves it, since he gets to help the disabled community and "be with the earth" at the same time. Because it's in north central Minnesota, we haven't gotten up to visit at all. He's currently taking some vacation time to go on a three week choir tour with a special audition-only group...they started in St. Louis, travelled up to NYC and down to Georgia, and are now headed back via Chicago. Because I was planning to be in New Mexico the whole time, I paid no attention to his itinerary.

Yesterday, Sharon (aka Grammy) took Maggie and me up to Belmont church for a young moms Bible study that she helps lead/mentor. As the study was ending, her phone rang. When she called the number back a few minutes later, it was my brother! His choir had finished a concert in Georgia the night before and were heading to spend the night in Louisville, KY. They happened to be in the Nashville area around lunch and decided to stop (with no previous plans to do so). Eric figured, I have an hour, maybe I can connect with Sharon. He had NO IDEA that Maggie and I were in town. Also, Tim and Sharon live 30 minutes south of Nashville, but their church is in downtown Nashville, where Eric's bus stopped. If we had skipped the Bible study and had stayed home istead, we would not have made it to downtown in time to see Eric. And in fact, my original plan was not to fly in to Nashville until today, the 16th, but the frequent flier ticket wasn't available to be used except on the 13th.

So many factors coming together to allow me to see my brother, and Maggie to see her godfather and uncle, maybe for the last time in 2 years. We were all in shock the entire half hour, but it was a wonderful reunion. God looks down and smiles at His handiwork, bringing families together. What a blessing.