from tragedy- great things do happen

so do you ever look at the chain -of-events when something happens in your life--and wonder if you had done something different would it still turn out the same?
ive been thinking about this a lot, because of how fast my life has changed from an awful hurricane that hit our country-
well being in california- and far away from the destruction what can you do but donate money to a charity- well we wanted to something more, so my scrapbooking friends and I put together a fundraiser "KROP 4 KATRINA"
We partnered with the salvation army and were able to raise over $4100-
Now the first wonderful thing that happened was a friend of mine who actually attended the event was hired by the Salvation Army a few months later-
now my chain of events started with a Thank you Card to A LSS owner who had given several items for the rafflle-
I had mailed all the Thank you cards out but decided to hand deliver this one to the owner, as she was an aquantaince of mine, and I did patronize the store often-(hey i needed an excuse to go shopping!)
it was at this delivery she told me she was selling the store- This was the ultimate job I wanted to be a LSS owner, as I had researched it about 6 months previously- but decided against a start up store- After discussing the options with my husband and talking with the SBA there was no way I would be able to manage a store and my family- let alone afford a store-
as a joke i asked helen my co-chair in the krop 4 katrina fundraiser if she wanted to buy a store with me- Helen and I met over scrapbooking- and never have I met someone as so much alike as me in my scrapbooking hobby that we just seem to make a perfect match-As she seriouly thought about partnering up with me to buy this store- we talked on the phone for at least 5 hours a day for 3 days straight determining if this would really work- after all helen a SAHM of 4 and me a SAHM of 3- jumping back to the workforce let alone owning a STORE! wow-
well- a month has passed since my little joke email- and january 1st- Helen and I become the official owners of the 'Scrapbook Addict' in Elk Grove-
All this from a hurricane!