UNBELIEVABLE & INTERESTING EVENTS

Remember in a previous post I told you we went to a Bazaar at the church in Ethiopia? Well, I didn't mention that while walking around, Jerry saw a man wearing a shirt that said "Santa Barbara" on it. Being Jerry, he walked up to him and asked if he was from Santa Barbara. He said yes and they talked for quite a while. He & his wife used to live there in Addis, but now they are back in California. They come to Addis regularly now to work with AIDS orphans and they absolutely love it. Jerry met his wife and they exchanged information for Jerry to visit with him when he travels to California. He was invited to meet with them on his next trip. We thought it was amazing that here we are in Africa, and we meet someone from home. Well, that's not all!

A couple of days ago, Gaby called Jerry all excited and in amazement. It turns out, she and her husband were visiting with her stepson and his daughter.(their granddaughter) The maternal grandparents to this daughter were there also, and started talking about their recent trip to Ethiopia. The stepson tells him that Gaby's brother was also just there to adopt three children. He says: "Really, I met a man at a Bazaar named Jerry Mestas who was adopting 3 children." To which he responded, You are kidding! That's Gaby's brother!" You guessed it! The man he met at the Bazaar is the grandfather to his sister Gaby's granddaughter. Can you believe this one? There we are in Africa and people are recognizing Ellie from her blog and we meet a distant relative...in a city with more than 4.5 million people?? What are the odds of this??? God is so amazing!

What was also funny was that while we were in Ethiopia, Jerry's sister Gaby had called Melissa to tell her that she knew someone who was going to be traveling to Addis the same time we were and wondered if we could meet up. For some reason, we never did get the information. Is that funny or what?