Tomorrow I will be 8 weeks pregnant, finally hitting the two month mark.  Strangely, it’s been easy to forget I’m pregnant, except that I still get cramping once in a while.  Otherwise, I am incredibly happy about my new “partnership” with my body and baby.

However, one day last week, I had my first spotting incident, very light and very non-threatening, but surprising and unnerving nonetheless.  I watched it carefully for 12 hours and it truly was nothing to worry about (it was not accompanied by any other symptoms that I’d read to look for).  But, when I told my husband, he became anxious.  We’d just had a vet visit where we found out one of our beloved cats has a heart murmur, so he was sensitive to bad news already.

I showed him the section in the pregnancy book that discussed spotting, explained to him why I wasn’t worried, and he finally fell into an exhausted nap.  I was quite sick that day with a head cold so I sat in bed next to him and read, with one cat curled up on my lap and the other in her little bed by the window.  It was a very cozy scene, and soothing after the week we’d just had.

I was reading a book by an author I enjoy, Jody Picoult, and it was a good escape.  Several hours passed, and I felt very relaxed… but when I got to page 93, I was suddenly jolted out of my lull by three things which I immediately realized were a sign for me that everything was perfectly fine with the baby.

First, the chapter was written from the point of view of a character named Vanessa, which in itself is unusual.  I don’t very often see my name in print or referenced.  And she happens to be a mental health counselor, like me.  Second, a reference to Robin Williams appeared at the top of that page as part of an anecdote, and he’s one of the main friends on the Other Side who’s been communicating with me about the pregnancy.  Third, two paragraphs down from that, Matthew’s name and story showed up as part of another anecdote.  That was the second time in two weeks that a blatant reference to him has appeared in my life, when it is nearly a 20-year-old story.  It was very pertinent to the character I was reading about, but it still really surprised me.

Those three things together – my name, Robin’s name and the reference to Matthew, all on one page – were clearly a sign to me from Spirit.  It sounds weird, and I can see how it would seem I’m making things “fit” when they’re just coincidence.  How could a book that was published in 2014 by someone I’ve never met hold three important signs for me personally, a year later?

Well, this is the beauty of Spirit and soul connections and the bigger picture of life on this planet.  In my spiritual view, Jodi’s guides worked with my guides, Matthew’s guides and Robin’s guides to influence Jodi to first create a character in my name, and then create stories that referenced both Robin and Matthew in that character’s section of the book, on the same page so it would catch my attention.  The references fit seamlessly into her story, but they were put there (without her consciously being aware) as a way to reach me many years later.  She and I never have to meet in this life to make this plausible; these types of things happen on a soul level, for much bigger reasons.

Another interesting piece of this is that I very rarely buy new books, preferring to borrow from the library, buy cheaper used books or participate in free book swaps.  The night F. and I went to the bookstore to purchase the pregnancy book, I suddenly, randomly found the urge to buy myself a new book, and ended up in the section where Jodi’s newest book sat – and at an immense discount.  As I’d read her work before and liked it, there was no question that I’d pick this one up.  Another “coincidence,” which was actually not a coincidence at all, but part of the much bigger plan.

This all might seem far-fetched, but we’re all connected on a soul level and there is no reason to question these bigger correlations, even though I’ve never met Jodi, Robin or Matthew in this particular life.  We all share past life connections; perhaps Jodi and I have karma from another life, and this was her soul’s way of helping me.  Maybe she “owed” me in some minor way, so she agreed before she came here to be a messenger of sorts when I needed it, even if she wasn’t consciously aware of it once the time came and will never actually “know” about it.

It’s pretty mind-blowing when you think about it… the intricacies of soul connection and relationships and the much bigger picture of why even the tiniest things happen.  The idea that everything and everyone is connected and everything happens for a reason, major or minute, is difficult to wrap our minds around… but I’ve seen proof of this over and over in my journey.

It’s beautiful, sometimes downright magical, and it makes this world just a little more bearable, sometimes.