More serendipity?

Funny how things work out sometimes, isn’t it?

Just as I was lamenting my lack of support here, no family, no friends, no internet, and a husband who only humors me when I try to discuss plans for the future, we had a surprise.

The two daughters of a family in our community and our two eldest girls attend classes together, one with Grice at the primary and the other with Sarabelle at the high school, both sets simultaneously becoming friendly. The topic of pets arose and the neighbor girls learned that the new people have two cats and a hedgehog back in Florida and have been looking for a dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, to be precise. (A dog that I, crazy researching person, have been trying for years to convince my husband and children would be the perfect match and worth the wait.) The neighbor girls excitedly told their mother about the new American girls, who are very nice, don’t swear, and are looking for a dog, and the whole troop, mom, girls, brother, and their champion Ridgeback bitch came over for an impromptu visit, bearing a just-baked chocolate sour cream cake.

The mom, a German ex-pat, ex-Catholic, grinds her own flour, bakes her own bread, and makes her own gourmet cheeses from her hand-milked cows on their solar-powered, television-free, organic dairy farm. She thinks the world is going to Hell in a handbasket and was thrilled to hear of some nice girls for her daughters to befriend. She has no great affection for government of any sort so I got a “Good on ya!” when she found out we had homeschooled instead of the usual puzzled stare. We’ll be getting together again soon.

Jorge came home from work too late for a piece of cake, but early enough to enjoy some lively conversation and fall in love with the dog. The mom decided right then and there to give into requests from other breeders to mate her Ridgeback because she wants us to have a puppy.


The long arm of coincidence.

-- Haddon Chambers (from Captain Swift)