Based upon the title of this post, you should be able to
ascertain two things. Number one, you obviously can't find a ring without first
losing/misplacing said ring. Number two, I have seen 'How to Lose a Guy in 10
Days' hence me ripping it off for this post. For the record, outside of 'A Time
to Kill', I do consider this to be Matthew McConaughey's best pre-McConassaince
film. Oh, what's that sound? Pretty sure it's the sound of my man card being
revoked.
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| In the category of pictures I never thought would be included on #DaddyWrite, I present the above. |
Back to that first point. A week ago on Sunday, while on my
way home from the men's retreat, I received a text from Bethany that she had
lost her engagement ring. Ok, I don't want to say lost because that just sounds
mean. Let's go with misplaced instead. Regardless of the terminology you choose
to use, I found myself feeling absolutely helpless. As my carpool buddy,
Dustin, will attest, I was pretty bummed about the whole thing for most of the
trip home.
As soon as I dropped Dustin off at his house, I began
retracing Bethany's steps from the day by immediately heading to the church.
Please don't think me a jerk. My daughter was asleep next to my wife so my
coming home would have just woken Ellie from her slumber.
From a phone conversation with Bethany right after I
received the text, the only places she had been that day were home, church, and
Target. From the absolute start, I thought it most likely the ring could be
found if it was just at church or home. Therefore, I decided to make a quick
stop by church and retrace steps through the parking lot since Dustin's home is
relatively close to there. Now, of course, I didn't find anything of value
after a few trots back and forth across the lot so gave up and headed for home.
Don't worry, I also made the obligatory trip to Target later that night to check the
parking lot and women's departments for any sign of the ring (and got lots of
weird looks in doing so).
That night, after plenty of discussion, I finally convinced
Bethany that we should post the ring was lost on Facebook and try to find it via the
power of social media. Over the next few days, I would see that post shared 74
times. I also posted ads for the ring on Facebook Marketplace and Craig's List
hoping to get some kind of hit. Instead, as the days went by, I found myself
feeling more and more dejected by a lack of progress. It seemed that nothing
was working. I mean, I even convinced the Loss Prevention guy at Target to
check the security camera footage to see if Bethany's ring was on her finger or
not. Sadly, her left finger was obscured by her coat's sleeve.
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| A possible reenactment of Bethany on security camera footage... |
Finally on Saturday morning, I was startled awake by the
vibrations of my phone around 6:00 am. Looking at the text message from my
friend, Allen, I was shocked to see that he was convinced he had found the
ring. You see, he had shared my post about the ring on a swap-and-shop forum he
was a part of. In doing so, he found that someone else had shared a post about a lost ring they found in the Target parking lot. After a little bit of back-and-forth,
Allen sent the lady's phone number onto me so I could get in touch.
Within two hours, Bethany and I (with Ellie) were at a CVS
Pharmacy, sitting in the parking lot waiting for a yellow Jeep to meet us. Sure enough, once the lady and
her husband arrived, it was with Bethany's very ring. It was a little worse for
wear after being run over in the parking lot several times but nothing that
couldn't be fixed and returned to us by March 31st (Thanks JCPenney Lifetime
Protection Plan!).
Honestly, all that I have heard when telling people this
story is how amazing it really is that the ring was recovered. I have to say I
agree. Bethany and I both found ourselves praying for this very recovery
throughout the week and we were both still in shock. I think the coolest part
of the whole thing is how it shows everything happens in God's own timing.
Throughout the week, I had definitely been obsessing over
the ring as I cannot stand it when things are lost and just wanted to help find
it. Finally, I reached the point where I was risking alienating my wife with my
consistent searching and had to just give it up to God. In other words, I found
myself acknowledging the fact that we would find the ring only if God willed it
and I needed to be OK with that. Once I finally settled down on Thursday night
and stopped obsessing is when the ring essentially fell right into our laps.
I should probably say I'm sorry if you just come here for Ellie stories and got this
little ditty instead. I did so because there are probably plenty of curious people
wondering how we found the ring. Also, I realized it's much easier to tell
stories via blog post rather than reciting it to individuals over and over
again.
Gotta think smarter, not harder. Alright, alright, alright. #DaddyWrite
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