Coincidence? No Way.
While waiting to hear from the school of our dreams as to whether or not Dylan will be accepted, I sent Shane on a playdate with one of his very best friends.
Alex is an incredibly intelligent boy who also has a vision processing disorder. Shane met him on the playground just before second grade started. Unlike all the other second graders, Alex was the only boy Shane really liked. Alex is bright. Prodigy bright. So I was very interested that Shane was interested in someone so smart. The boys weren’t in the same second grade class, but they played together at recess every day.
Alex’s mom and I both went to the school administration – unbeknownst to each other – and asked that the boys be put in the same third grade class. So for third grade, they were inseparable. They talked about the Bible, and numbers. Alex has mastered calculus; Shane’s interest is in statistics. They created “time machine,” a game where they travel back in time and relive history.
Then Alex got into the GT program for fourth grade and Shane didn’t, so they’ve grown apart a bit. But they still have fairly regular playdates.
Alex’s mom and I have become friends over the years. We’re not as close as we might be, but we always end up talking endlessly, even when we don’t have time. So today, when she dropped off Shane after the playdate, I told her about applying to private school for Dylan.
“What’s the name of the school?” she asked. And I told her.
“My mother founded that school,” she said, as casually as if we were discussing the weather.
Her mother founded the school. Alex’s grandmother founded the school we found for Dylan!
The found is the legend everyone loves, even though she retired (after decades of running the school) at the age of 72. She started the school, moved it from a church room with only 13 students to another campus, and then bought 54 acres and built the school where it stands today.
I’d read all about her, the story behind the school, the interviews for the news. By the time I found out that Alex’s mom’s mom founded the place, I knew “the legend” almost as well as I knew the school. I knew she was responsible for all that was good about the place, all the things I loved about the school, all the reasons I wanted Dylan to attend.
My overriding thought after hearing “my mother founded that school” – the thing that reverberates through my brain even hours later – is:
Coincidence? No way.
I felt like God gave me the gold-star stamp of approval! It was like someone affirmed that the place is genuinely the loving, caring place it appears to be. I know that no school is perfect – but at least I know now that they mean what they say, and that their mission is truly to “seek and speak truth and love.”
I told my husband and mother about this miracle “coincidence.”
Neither of them responded with the thought I had: the gold-star stamp thought. They both said, “Well, why don’t her kids go to that school?”
They both are relatively pragmatic. I have no idea why Alex and his siblings don’t go there, but I will ask her when I see her next.
Meanwhile, I just think it’s a sign from God that whatever is meant to be, will be.