Some Things Are Meant To Be

Other titles I considered for this post were: Serendipity, Kismet, Coincidence, and Fate. 

I know it's weird. Just wait till you read the following...

I am floored today with a series of interwoven circumstances that have presented themselves in such a peculiar manner. It's as if life is showing me something, or trying to teach me something.

Back Back Story
The husband and I first considered an apartment management position about two years ago. We applied for several here and there -- some closer to my work in Torrance, but most in the West L.A. area. Then an opportunity arose with some people in my church. A family had been apartment managers to a lovely building in the area we wanted to stay in and were moving out. Timing was perfect for when we needed to move out of UCLA graduate apartments. We sent our application and asked our friends to put in a good word for us.

We waited. We hoped. We prayed. We followed up. We waited some more. We followed up again. We resent our resumes. We prayed some more. We told friends. They prayed and hoped for us too. Oh we wanted it so bad! It would have been perfect for us!

But it didn't happen.

The feedback from the management was finally that they wanted someone with prior experience. Discouraged, we figured that apartment managing probably wouldn't be ours and we didn't apply for anything further for more than a year later.

The husband found employment at Summit Entertainment in July last year and we ended up moving to another apartment that we thought would be convenient, but we stayed in West L.A.

Back Story
The first Sunday I attended church in our new area after we moved to North L.A. (last month), a couple spoke to the congregation to say goodbye since they were moving to West L.A. with an apartment management position. Amused by the coincidence, I introduced myself to the wife, "R." I learned that they have a daughter a few months younger than ours, and I told her we had accepted an apartment management position in too. We had both been looking for positions in our preferred area -- she in the valley/North L.A., and we in West L.A. -- but couldn't find anything, when the opportunity presented itself quickly for them, just as it had for us, and it happened pretty much the same week too. We were quite literally switching places.
I thought it funny, but didn't think much of it since even with the times we ran into each other at play dates and mommy/kiddie swimming gatherings. She is a sweet woman and easy to talk with.

Today
One of my client's requested a several-hour meeting in their office near LAX so I thought of our new friend R to tend Naomi for a few hours since she was close. I called her and she easily accepted. She then told me exactly where she lived. I laughed. Hard.

They are the apartment managers at the very opportunity we wanted.

I drove up today and smiled to myself, thinking of all the times I drove past the building with such intense hope. With Naomi in tow, I walked up to the front door and noticed that there's a bus stop right in front of the building.

"How convenient that bus stop would have been for the husband when he worked at Summit just a few minutes away," I thought.

The thought continued, "How nice it could have been if employment there would have been pleasant and he could have stayed employed..."

Wouldn't it have been ideal? 

Maybe. Maybe not.

Sure, a response to the discovery here could be frustration or even dismissal, but there are too many things right in place for circumstances to occur as they did for me to even know what happened. So I'm not going to dismiss it. I think there's something to learn here. The fact that the couple stayed back one more week after they moved to say goodbye in church. The fact that the  West L.A.apartment building we wanted happened to be available again when we were looking, but we didn't come across it in our search. The fact that this couple is interested in being our friends...

But There's More
I was speaking to my dearest friend T today after dropping Naomi off to tell her of my serendipitous story, and I mentioned their last name. She said, "Wait...." and repeated the last name. Turns out T and R's husband worked together several years ago before T was even married. They know each other very, very well.

AND... The friends who were the moving-out managers two years ago when we first applied have a brother in the ward we live in now.

Seriously people, my life's timeline is folding in on itself.

Something to Learn
So... I was just shown a little part of my life that "could have been," but was never meant to be. Haven't you ever wished for that? What a trip!

I can tell you that I am very happy in my new life. I get the happiest feeling all over my body when I go on walks with Naomi around the neighborhood we live in now. I see certain landmarks around our place and I just smile. I just get this feeling that everything is the way it's supposed to be, everything is good, and something very good (even better) is right around the corner.

It wasn't the ideal I thought it should be, but I'm thinking it's better.

See... I told you 2012 was going to be great. (Read the last paragraph of this post.)