The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways-1

It's been said that the Lord works in mysterious ways. I've had confirmation of that a few times in the last few days. This blog entry will  let you know of one instance.

We've had our 12 year old granddaughter with us since the beginning of July, and she's kept us quite busy. We've not minded that one bit, but suffice it to say that the normal routines have been cast to the winds. After all, why would one give up  a crafting partner for a dumb old computer keyboard?
That said, you will now understand why I hadn't checked one of my email accounts since sometime in mid-June.

That particular email address is almost exclusively used for my genealogy pursuits.  I went there to see what junk mail needed to be cleaned out of the 'box' and to see if there was anything worth reading. Imagine my surprise when I saw a mail waiting (from an unknown woman)  dated June 23, with a subject title of "Waygood Family Album."  I opened it to read it,with some doubt as to whether it was legit.
Reading through it, I learned that this woman who lives in Idaho had been on vacation in Oregon, had visited  an antique shop there, and in her attempt to add to her collection of  old photos, she'd purchased an album of family photos. 

After scanning the pages into her computer so that she could keep them, and without removing them from the album, she began a search for a family member who might want the album. She attempted to contact two or three other folks with our family name, with no response. She also checked the genealogy boards where she found an inquiry I'd left there in 2000 about a family name. Since my inquiry named someone she'd found obits for in the scrapbook, she took a chance that my email on the message board would still be good. It was. (That is precisely why I NEVER change my email names or addresses.)

So began an email and telephone communication from coast to coast. Carol is a lovely woman, about my age, and so thoughtful as to gift with this family scrapbook. She won't let us reimburse her for the money she's spent to purchase the book or to ship it to us. What a random act of kindness on her part!
She will be gifted with  many antique photos as I find them in my haunting of junk, thrift and antique stores!

The album should arrive here on Thursday. We are delighted and excited as the photos she scanned and emailed to us  are definitely my husband's family. There are some of his Dad when he married for the fourth time. (!!!) and some of  his great-grandfather, etc. There are others who we can't identify, but with the help of  a 78 yr old cousin in the southwest, we may get to that. We are also faced with other mysteries concerning this book of pictures. How did it end up in Oregon when the majority of the family lived in Wyoming? Who put the album together in the first place? What made Carol start to leave the antique store without the album, and suddenly retrace her steps and change her mind,going back to buy it?  Why did she feel compelled to track us down and get the album to the family? What are the chances that she'd find us...the only ones in the family who really care about genealogy?  We might never know. What I do know is this....we are most grateful!

The Lord does, indeed, work in mysterious ways!