Wish I could remember that Scripture!!

This is gonna bug me - but a couple of years back my church did a study on The Purpose Driven Life. When we were doing the chapter "You Are Not an Accident," we had a discussion about a scripture (NT, I'm pretty sure) that said something to the effect of God had planned the people we would cross paths with, and that it would be to His glory - or something... I cannot recall that scripture for the life of me, but the gist of it is playing out in my life...

A couple of years, ago Charlie Brown and I were having some marital strife. Same issues as they had been for the first 5 yrs of our marriage, only this time I was ready to get a counselor involved and he couldn't poo-poo it because my of my then-newfound employee benefit package included an Employee Assistance Program (EAP - read: free counseling for me and members of my household for 6-8 sessions/person each year). So, I called the EAP and told them I wanted a counselor for marital issues, and that due to the nature of our problems, I would prefer someone who identified themself as a Christian marriage counselor. They told me about Counselor S, so Chuck and I went to see a Counselor S. We saw her for 6 mos and it helped our marriage overall, but I don't know that I would have gone back to her...it seemed like we were helped most by simply having a venue for those heartfelt discussions, more than by anything she directly contributed...kwim?

Fast forward a year or so, and LMNOB's pediatrician moved to a brand new office. And so did Counselor S, who was now leasing office space from our ped in the new building. Hang on to that detail. Also, keep in mind that this woman was the "luck of the draw" for us initially - we could have gotten anyone.

Fast forward again, to the issues we're having with LMNOB. I called the EAP, but my work switched EAP providers and while Counselor S is not in their network, I thought I would call her after talking to the ped, just b/c of history and familiarity with our family makeup, thinking that she might know someone to refer us to, or the persons the new EAP had listed out for me.

I called her yesterday and she just called me back. Her kids are the same age as ours, but instead of girl-boy, they are boy-girl in order - which we always laughed about in our sessions when we got into parenting discussions, b/c they were really similar personalities.

Turns out, her son (same age as LMNOB) has SID, was diagnosed 6 mos ago, etc. The personal space issue, combined with tantrums and other sensory stuff is right on with her experiences - She kept saying, "Oh Heather, that's so my son."

They got a diagnosis from an occupational therapist, who did an assessment and now does weekly sessions with the son, and also gave her and her husband some behavioral remedies to do at home. It was an extremely helpful phone call, and left me thinking, how providential that she remained on my radar through this coincidental office space arrangement (I'd lost all of her info, but the ped had it) after all this time, that she herself had had direct experience, and she was able to provide me with some great next steps (OT referral, etc).

She also told me, "Prior to our family's experience with SID, if you had sent LMNOB to me w/o any OT input, I wouldn't even have considered SID - and a lot of counselors out there are equally unfamiliar with it. It is covered so minimally in our training."

That's why it is so amazing to me that we connected, b/c without her input, it is highly likely that we could have started with a counselor and barked up the wrong tree for who knows how long.

But we did and have parallel situations, it seems.

So, next steps are to check out insurance coverage of OT and if the EAP would consider covering it if health insurance doesn't. She also said she would go thru the hoopla to get approved by our new EAP provider so that she could do some family talk-therapy with us if we wanted.

I don't know why I am always so shocked when God provides! I know that He does in my head, but it's like there is just enough doubt that there is honest surprise when He takes care of us. I don't know if it is an element of distrust, or the human mechanism that makes me so grateful for His guidance and protection of our lives. The optimist in me hopes for the latter.

In the meantime, keep us in your prayers; we've got to navigate the insurance system, oy vey.