One Degree of Separation

I was thinking today about how small the world is and all the weird connections my friends and family have. Here are three examples:

#1
A good friend of mine, Banana, whom I grew up with and have known since the 5th grade in Houston, now lives in New York and goes to the very same church as my soul sister, Cha. Cha and I have been good friends since college in NY. And now they are good friends. In fact Cha was in both mine and Banana's wedding parties.

They hardly remember, but about 7 years ago when I was visiting NY for a wedding, I was staying with Cha and had dinner with a random mix of friends (friends of my husband's, old friends from Houston and friends from college). They were both at that dinner and I don't think they even talked to each other.

#2
I have this friend, Soph, who went to the same college as Joe, and whom I met through another friend, Maria, whom I met while we were in grad school together. Not only did Maria go to grad school back in Texas with me, but she also went to the same college as Joe, which is out on the east coast. They all knew each other back in college and hung out in similar circles. Soph and Maria have been very close since high school (in Texas). Also, Soph's husband went to the same med school in Texas as my husband. Did you catch all that?

That's not the end of the hysteria. For a while Soph and her husband lived out here in LA like us. One day, Soph and I were talking about our Dads and discovered some very eerie similarities. They are both engineers and both work at the Houston office of a large engineering firm. 7 years ago my Dad was transferred for about 3 years to China by his company, which has branches all over the US and the world. I was telling Soph how difficult the job situation was in Houston and how my Dad was transferred overseas to China. "Wow, that's strange. My Dad is going through the same difficulties with his job and made the decision to transfer to China, too," says Soph. It turns out, they worked for the same company, in the same building for many years and had never met until they were both transferred at about the same time to work on the same project in China. Not only that. They had already become bosom buddies (eating dinners together, talking about children and soon-to-be grandchildren, taking hikes, and getting massages) before we even discovered this connection and revealed it to them. And here's the cherry on top of the sundae: Soph and I were both pregnant at the same time and had babies 5 days apart, although our due dates were only 1 day apart.

#3
Before our family immigrated to the US, my Dad went to college with and eventually worked at the same company as this other man, Mr. Y. They remained friends even after both our families came to the US, despite living in different states. Mr. Y became a pastor and was instrumental in bringing my Dad to Christ, which in turn was the key to saving our whole family. Through the years our families met and their 4 kids and my brother and I, who are all very close in age, got to know each other through short family vacations together.

Skip forward to 10 years ago. Joe and I meet for the very first time on a rock at Galveston beach with a bunch of other men and women from church. We begin a friendship. After I graduate from college, I go back to Houston and our friendship grows. We study together, he counsels me on med schools (I was pre-med and he was in med school), and we just talk about anything and everything. One day, my Dad discovers us talking at church and is surprised. He says to me, "Do you know who this is?" ... "This is the nephew of Mr. Y." Say what?! It turns out, Mr. Y told Joe to look up my Dad at our church. Joe and my Dad were already acquainted, but it was at that moment that Joe discovered that I was the daughter of his uncle's friend. My father-in-law and Mr Y. are the 4th and 5th children out of 8 siblings.

Did you just get chills? My life never ceases to amaze and blow me away. If these aren't examples of God's providence, I don't know what is. Anyone else got any good stories?