LOST AND FOUND

Here is a "testimonal" I wrote for a website that helped us out recently....


It wasn’t just any ring that went flying off my finger while throwing snowballs at our husky. It was THE ring. The ring he chose all by himself. The ring he loved enough to give to me when he got down on one knee. And now it was hidden somewhere in 2 feet of snow!

We were newly engaged and still floating on cloud 9. Everything was perfect leading up to that afternoon of playing in the snow. The sunshine was glistening as we took turn tossing clumps of snow into the air. Our dog was jumping up chomping on them. I picked a big clump and tossed it with both hands. As I let go of the snow I knew instantly that my ring, which hadn’t been sized yet, was gone. Feeling it slide off the whole length of my finger was the worst feeling in the world.

We looked for hours. Tracing and retracing every inch of the dog park we were in. When our eyes failed us we shoveled 16 trash bags full of snow and melted them in the bathtub hoping to find my ring in the water. Bag after bag melted and bag after bag there was no ring. As my tears dried we slowly began to realize that short of a miracle, the ring was gone forever.

That miracle was discovering theringfinders.com on Google. They were great! There was no one in our area listed on the website but they found us a guy who lives down the street. Larry came the next day with all his gear and in 45 minutes had the ring back in my fiance’s hands. Larry’s strategy was simple and effective. He started with where I was standing and slowly expanded his search past where we had been looking until he hit the jackpot. We are so grateful to Larry and theringfinders.com for helping us! Instead of a tragic memory they gave us our ring, a great story to tell at the reception, and something my fiance can tease me about for the rest of our lives.

Now for a few details that didn't make it into the testimonal.
1. This horrific event happened over MLK weekend in January while I was visiting Chris in Rhode Island.
2. I have the best fiance ever. I was the one freaking out like a maniac and he was just focused on calming me down. He just kept saying, "It's just a ring. I love you. We are still going to get married. It is just a ring." He even talked to his parents and asked if he should go out and buy me another one the next day when stores opened up. Yup! I found myself a keeper! He is the best! I love him!
3. No, I didn't have gloves on we were only going to be out there for a couple minutes while Jak (our husky) stretched his legs and peed. Lesson learned: ALWAYS wear gloves when there is snow on the ground, even if you are just thinking about going outside!
4. Snow glistens in the sun just like my big sparkly diamond which is a good metaphor for writing stories but bad when you are trying to find a lost diamond ring in the snow.
5. I cried the whole plane ride back to VA. The poor woman who sat next to me probably thought I was nuts. There I was crying, flipping through a bridal magazine with no ring on my finger. When she finally asked if I was okay I told her what had happened and then we cried together.
6. I didn't say anything to my students about the rind when I went to school Monday morning but they had noticed it by about 10 AM. The girls all started crying and the boys mouths just dropped and were like "That's not good." "That's why I'm never getting married...too expensive." "Are you going to be sad the rest of the year?"
7. I teach a very diverse classroom. Half my class has roots in the Middle East or Asia. One of my students even offered to pray to her Gods for me. "They will find it." she said. :o) Between myself being Mormon, Chris being Catholic and my students I think we covered all major religions in prayer. I now have a very good story for the next time I have to give a talk/lesson in church about prayer. I find it very interesting that no matter what religion you are, when something goes wrong we all have this innate instinct to turn to a higher power in prayer.
8. Chris told me he had found the ring after school got out Monday. I literally screamed and jumped up and down in the hallway while walking to my car. What can I say? I was excited!
9. Since Chris and I survived this (with two thumbs up might I add) potential disaster I know we can survive anything. :o)