It is pretty amazing how events seen as minor and insignificant at the time turn out to be life altering when you look back at them years down the road.

Almost 10 years ago now, my wife and I, along with our then 18-month-old son, were living in a nice, little home in the heart of a city. We had just finished remodeling the basement and had no plans to move any time soon.

Then came Elmo. Yes, that Elmo – the one from Sesame Street. He changed everything.

My wife was a stay-at-home mom who also watched a few other kids every now and then. Maya, the little girl of some friends of ours, was one of the more regular additions. One Friday she forgot her favorite little Elmo doll at our house. Since we were planning on heading out of town for the weekend, we decided we better stop by her house on the way and drop off Elmo so she would not have to spend a few days without him.

As we turned into their driveway, I noticed the house next door had a “For Sale” sign in the yard. I kiddingly quipped to my wife, “Look, that house is for sale. Should we buy it?” She dumbfoundedly and doubtfully responded with, “Are you serious?”

For the fun of it, while one of us went into the house to drop off Elmo, the other grabbed a “For Sale” flier. We talked about the house the entire ride and ended up calling the realtor to set up a viewing for Sunday.

Fewer than six weeks later, we had re-roofed and sold the old house and moved into the new house.

Since then, both our families have grown – two boys and a girl for us, three girls and a boy for them. Most days the most exciting thing our kids can do is play with their neighbors, either outside or in one of the houses. They watch our kids quite often and we watch their kids quite often. We lean on them for support. They lean on us for support. You know how it goes with good neighbors.

Just last weekend, while I was at work, my wife had all seven kids at our house for dinner and games. One game they played was Say Anything! If you are not familiar with the game, one player reads a question and everyone else writes down a response. After the responses are read, the rest of the players try to guess which response the reader of the question will pick as his or her favorite.

Luke, the 2nd grade neighbor boy, took his turn by reading this question – “If you could travel to any country, where would you go?” The responses by the rest of the players were Wisconsin Dells, Hawaii, Madagascar, France, Colombia, Mexico and The Corbetts (keep in mind, the ages of the kids ranged from six to twelve).

Luke picked The Corbetts as his favorite. My wife asked why, with all the places in the world to go, he would choose to go next door, and he said because “it’s the most fun place.”

My kids would say the same thing about Luke’s house.

I have no idea where Elmo is now. He may still be in the neighbor’s house somewhere or possibly sold at a garage sale and presently working his magic at someone else’s house. Either way, Elmo will always be with us.

Who would have thought that forgetting one little doll would end up impacting the lives of two families so significantly and so deeply. Makes me wonder if Maya didn’t do it on purpose.