Fate or Coincidence?

Have you ever met someone and had the feeling that this person and/or his family were somehow supposed to be a part of your/your family's life?

I have.

When we first signed Cinderella up for ballet lessons, I put her in the 4/5 year old class. She was the only one in the class, so her instructor asked if we would transfer her to the 3/4 class. No big deal.

That's where I met Ballet Dad.

Ballet Dad is a nice, easygoing, laid back, talkative, stay-at-home dad. We began to chat week after week, due to the fact that there were only 3 kids in this ballet class: Cinderella, Ballet Dad's daughter, and another girl who just dropped out, forcing the instructor to cancel the class.

Ballet Dad was nice enough every week, but definitely not one of the ladies I'd befriended last year at ballet.

Then Cinderella started 6 weeks of soccer.

And who do think was on her team?

Ballet Dad's son.

Prince Charming met and talked with Ballet Dad some after finding out our children were involved in the same activities.

That night he asked me if I thought Ballet Dad looked familiar.

I thought about it and couldn't really answer one way or another. I thought he might look familiar, but I'd seen him at ballet for long enough to confuse my memory.

Prince Charming was fairly certain we'd met Ballet Dad before, so we wracked our brains, trying to come up with ideas of where we could possibly have met Ballet Dad before.

Then Prince Charming saw the picture (one of almost 4000) flashing by on the slide show on our computer's screen saver.

Last summer, when Cinderella was 3, Prince Charming did a parent/tot swim class with her. Guess who else was in the swim class?

Ballet Dad. And his daughter.

That's 3 entirely different activities over the past 5 seasons that our children have been a part of together.

Granted, Moses Lake is not a huge city, but seriously. Ballet AND soccer? At the same time? The exact same swimming class time and session?

Add to this the fact that Ballet Dad's children go to the Christian Academy, which our church is heavily affiliated with, and we've potentially got fate working for us.

Or coincidence.