It's A Small World

The last (and only) time I went on that iconic Disneyland attraction was back in 1988.  On my honeymoon.  We took pictures, but I chopped them all up to put in some pretty cool scrapbooks, and the negatives are tucked in a box patiently waiting to be digitized.  But this picture was taken on the same day,

so you can clearly see that it was a very long time ago.

The next two times we visited Disneyland, Small World was closed.  But once you have been through it, you can never forget the sentiment that it's a small, small world, if you know what I mean.

So, like I mentioned last week, I started a new job.  The first day, I reported to the Special Education teacher who had interviewed me.  She handed me a schedule for the week, which is where I discovered that I would be spending half of my working day with the best kindergarten teacher ever.  How did I know?  Because I know her.  She's in my ward.  We've served in YW together.  I knew she taught kindergarten, but had forgotten (or did I ever know?) that she was working at that particular school (which is only in it's second year -- I think).  What a pleasant surprise.  And yes, it's a small world.

A little later in the week, I was at the high school taking pictures of the cheer team for locker tags.  As things were wrapping up, I saw the mom of one of the kids I work with walking into the school... wait a minute...  my friend (the kindergarten teacher) had mentioned that this little boy was Mormon... what was his last name again?  It started with a C...  it hit me.  This connection will take some 'splainin', so try to follow:

Years ago (1996 to be exact), on a sunny day in June (the 13th to be exact), I was in the hospital preparing to give birth to what I believed would be another daughter.  As I was patiently waiting (epidural placed, of course), Bill came in and said, "I just ran into this guy from my work... his wife is having a baby today too."  

"Cool," I replied.  Then we got back to the business of the day, and Shilo was born.

It was tradition in our family for Bill to video-tape our babies' first bath, which he did.  Once Shilo was clean and fresh and tucked into her hospital nursery bed, Bill taped a few minutes of his work buddy and his daughter (also sleeping soundly in the nursery).  

Fast forward to the summer of 2009.  Bill and I went with the girls from our Stake on the 4th year hike.  We were assigned a group of about 9 girls (Lexee included).  We hiked, we camped, we got our group lost and ended up taking the long way to the next camp for the night.  You know, good memories (now that it's over).  We got to know the girls, six of which were from wards other than our own.  One of the girls was named Maryn (pronounced ma-RIN)... oh, I told her, I liked that name, in fact I had almost named one of my girls Maren (MAIR-en).

"Oh, I can't stand the name Maren.  If you call me Maren, I won't answer you."  I made a mental note, and made sure NOT to say her name incorrectly.

When school was ready to start that year, we attended the seminary fireside, where, crazy enough, Bill ran into that guy... the one from work AND the hospital years back.  He was Maryn's dad.  We chuckled together over the funny fact that we had daughters born on the same day.  We found out that they were in our stake.  Lexee and Maryn were PE locker partners that year.

This year at the seminary fireside, Bill figured out who Maryn's younger sister was (the one from the hospital), and, being the friendly, outgoing, in-your-face-kind-of-guy he sometimes is, he went up to her and said, "I know when your birthday is... we have you on video tape when you were a baby..."  She smiled politely, but seemed to want to be chatting with friends, rather than with some old guy she didn't know.  Lexee knew Maryn's sister had tried out for cheerleading, and had made the JV team.

So when I saw the mom of the little boy I had been working with all week at the high school on cheer picture day, 

the connections started connecting (it takes me awhile).  I had never met her before (at least before Monday, when she didn't seem happy at all that her son was on the 3rd or 4th EA only a couple weeks into the school year).  So the next day, at the end of class, I said, "Hey, I know your family... I went on the 4th year hike with Maryn... your daughter's on the JV cheer team, right?"  She gave me the "That's YOU?" and we chatted briefly.  I think maybe she felt a little more comfortable leaving her youngest child with me after that (at least I hope).  Small world.

And today, after class, Maryn's mom asked another EA (the one that told me I looked nice on Friday) if she was so-and-so's sister (she was).  Hey, I know her.  She's a fellow cheer mom too... her daughter and Lexee have been on the same team since their freshman year.  Crazy small, that's what I say.

Finally, on a sad note, my sister lives in the stake where the bishop was senselessly shot and killed Sunday in CA.  She knows the family personally.  Her family was out of town eagerly anticipating the arrival of her oldest son home (kind of) from his mission on Tuesday.  They had to meet him in SLC because he will be starting back at BYU on Wednesday (a very speedy transition).  It's too bad that she has to feel shock and devastation in addition to the emotional roller coaster I'm sure she's already on.  What a horrible tragedy.  The family of the bishop, their ward, and stake members are in our prayers.  I can't imagine dealing with something like that.  And it just feels too close to home.