What are the odds?

I have to admit I had no idea there even was a big lottery until yesterday when everyone was posting about it on Facebook. As nice as it would be to win the lottery (do you know how many adoptions 1 million dollars would pay for, let alone 300 million??), we don't play the lottery. A lot of people were also posting about the odds of winning the lottery compared to the odds of other things, such as having a 1 in 280,000 chance of getting struck by lightning, or being 100 times more likely to be killed by flesh-eating bacteria than you are to win the lottery. Chances of winning last night's lottery were 1 in 176 million, so you're still pretty safe from that flesh eating bacteria.

But I have a happy odds story to share! I've shared part of it before but I'll recap:

When we were in Ethiopia last April, we took lots of pictures of Jeb and his friends. 1 of his best friends had a family from our agency who asked us to take pictures of their son, so we made sure to get lots of pictures of him. His other best friend loved getting his picture taken and kept tapping me and saying "photo!" and then posing with a cheesy grin. I took a ton of pictures of him, and he always wanted to look at each one after I took them, then post for another.

When we got home I emailed our agency and asked if he had a family yet. They responded that he did have a family, but through a different agency so they didn't have any more information to give us. This was a national agency with branches in many states, but I really wanted this family to see all the adorable pictures of their son, so I went to the website and clicked 'contact us'. I gave his name and age, and the name of the orphanage and said we had just been there and taken lots of pictures, and if they could pass our contact information to the family of this boy, that would be great. Months went by and I never heard anything back, but I figured it was a long shot and hadn't really been expecting anything.

Then one day this past fall I got an email from T's mother! We exchanged stories and pictures and realized we had a lot in common, including the fact that we are both Christian families with 2 younger kids who are adopting older boys. They only live a 6 hour drive from us, which is a doable distance, and meeting half way makes it even more doable.

We didn't understand why we were waiting so long to bring Jebriel home, until this past January when Eric got to go pick Jebriel up at the same time that the parents of both his best friends were there for court. The parents all got to meet in person, and the boys all got to see that we are friends and will see each other again.

When Jebriel left the orphanage, both other parents were there to see their boys' sadness at losing their friend, and here in America, our son asks about his friends all the time. I thought my longing would be over once our son was home, but knowing that his friends are still waiting and missing him, and their parents are still waiting and missing their sons, I still feel incomplete.

His best friend Tariku is finally coming home this weekend, which is a blessing in itself, BUT the cheapest flight for his parents to take coming home involves a 6 hour layover at our local airport! They get to see each other, face to face, after 3 months apart, not knowing what the other was doing or when they would meet again. After spending over a year together eating, sleeping, and playing in the same room, 3 months apart is a long time! The 3rd musketeer is still waiting, please pray for the little guy and everyone who touches his paperwork as it moves through the process. I can't wait to reunite the 3 of them!

What are the odds that 2 random American families in 2 neighboring states would use 2 separate agencies to adopt 2 little boys who were born in 2 different areas of Ethiopia, would get the opportunity to form a friendship, and then be brought together to meet on the other side of the world, and now to be given an entire day to spend together? I don't have a number for you, but I'm going to say the chances of this happening are pretty slim!