Day 12: There is no such thing as coincidence.

Last week I received an email from one of my dearest friends telling me about an incident in which she was volunteering in her daughter's kindergarten class and met the mom of another girl in the class. The two little girls had become quite fond of one another since the start of school. As the moms began talking, my friend realized she was meeting someone of whom she had heard me speak several times. When my journey began in July of 2011, I was introduced {through another friend} to a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer about one month before me. We immediately began writing to one another and sharing the struggles we were mutually facing. We followed each other's Caring Bridge pages and became cheerleaders for one another. We have only met in person twice, but our bond was instantaneous. Now two of the most precious people in my life are friends, and it looks as though it might be the start of a sweet friendship for their daughters as well.

On the same day I read that email, I had a similar something happen to me. I had been told the story of a woman from our church that was diagnosed with a desmoid tumor near her spine. Apparently desmoid tumors are not malignant but behave so much like cancerous tumors that it can lead to severe pain and amputations (and death too). They are often treated with surgery unless they reach a size so large that chemotherapy and radiation are necessary in order to shrink them, as is the case for this woman. Since hearing her story and what she was facing, I had been wanting to reach out to her. I happened to be at the hospital that day for an appointment and was browsing through the gift shop checking out their “pink” stuff when a woman came up to me and said she recognized me from this video and this one too that were shown at church back in December. She told me her name and I immediately knew it was the same person. We shared a really special time in the lobby of the Health Sciences Pavilion {right outside of the Breast Center, by the way}. We talked. We prayed. We encouraged each other. We knew our meeting was from The Lord.

Is it a coincidence that my mom's friend Trisha was volunteering at the Breast Center the day my cancer was discovered? {Read more about this here}

Is it a coincidence that my friend in St Augustine was college roommates with the mom of one of Koa's little buddies in his preschool class who is also quickly becoming one of my good friends?

Is it a coincidence that a reserved guy from Hawaii and an extroverted girl from Maryland would enter a physical therapy program in St. Augustine, FL at precisely the same time.

Is it a coincidence that my mother-in-law would be diagnosed with breast cancer a few months before I was?

Some would chalk all of this up to coincidence.  Some may even label it fate. Not me. I believe in a plan. A plan that belongs to a God who wants us to experience His loving provision in the smallest and biggest details of our lives.