Fate, Luck, or What?

I went to the gym this morning (yay, me-I finally used the adult locker room and found it to be ever so much nicer than the family one; I feel silly about my previous shyness, as it turned out to be much more private than I'd anticipated in the shower room), then home for lunch. I mention the "home for lunch" because this is where the issue of fate comes in. My daughter has been nursing somewhat of a cold for the past two days. Although she seemed to be feeling much better today, her little nose is still a bit stuffy and she cannot currently use it for breathing. This caused lunch to stretch out endlessly today, much to my chagrin since I had several different places to visit and wanted to eat lunch and get back out the door as quickly as possible (how silly of me; I forget that for a three year old there is no such thing as rushing since three year olds have no real conception of time). Finally, the Spaghetti O's were gone, my little one's face was cleaned of it's tomato sauce war paint, and we were on the road again. Our first stop was the bank. This is where the issue of fate comes in.

When I made the turn onto the street where the bank is located, I noticed several police cars parked along the street in front of the building. Hmmm. Not a good sign. I slowly pulled into the parking lot, making note of two women who were standing outside, looking very upset. One was chattering away on a cell phone with a Spanish accent. I parked the car, fairly certain that something terrible had occurred, then heard someone grumble that the bank would be closed for an undetermined length of time. It turns out the bank was robbed just moments before our arrival. Had Little One eaten more quickly, we might have been at the bank trying to deposit a rather large check at the same time someone else was attempting to make an extremely unorthodox withdrawal. A chill descended over my body as I realized that my daughter and I could have been in a situation of great danger. There have been many robberies here in Florida as of late, and more than a few of them have ended with a victim being killed for no reason other than the cold heartedness of the perpetrator. As a parent, I don't want to be in ANY situation where it's even marginally likely that my daughter will be hurt.

As we were driving to North Miami to conduct our business at a different bank (with me saying a silent prayer along the way that whoever robbed the aforementioned bank was not planning a spree) I wondered if any divine power had a hand in keeping us away from the scene of this crime. Was it just luck? I do believe that sometimes our guardian spirits, angels and G-d intervene in our lives for the purpose of saving our asses. I don't know and will never know if that was the case for us today (moms with small children make for great hostages if a situation goes south). What I do know is this: as we were pulling away from the bank where the robbery took place, I thanked my little girl for taking her time eating lunch today. She smiled at me sweetly and answered, "You're welcome."