The Ring - not the horror movie, but still horrifying

I received a new Sour Cream Apple Pie recipe via email this last week - and decided to make it for family dinner tonight.  It wasn't hard, but since pie crust is particularly challenging for me, I was feeling a little anxious.

After church, I took off all of my jewelry, including my engagement ring, since I knew I would be making a mess with the pie crust and filling.  I do remember having the thought of, "I'll put it there and then I'll remember it later".  You can see where this is going....

And then it was gone.  No idea.  Could not remember where that spot was anymore, and I panicked big time.  I searched and searched, went to family dinner with my pie (and huge alligator tears rolling down my cheeks as I drove to my parent's house).  Chad met me there (since I had been home making pie and losing my engagement ring), and immediately asked what was wrong.  As I told him, he very calmly said, "Well it has to be there".  Yes, yes it does....but I had absolutely no idea where.

I had already looked in all of my normal ring hiding places, and they were all empty.  I prayed for help, cried to my mother, and left dinner to go back home and search.  I went through all of the places I could again again, prayed more, and finally went out to the garbage can to get the most recent bag of rubbish that I took out earlier today.  I knelt down on my kitchen floor and untied the bag to start emptying it piece-by-piece into a different bag, praying outloud again that I would find it in the bag.

And that's when I looked to my left and realized it was very carefully sitting under my kitchen table on a barstool.  WHAT?!  There is absolutely no reason why that makes sense, but I have no need to question it.  I immediately burst into tears again, weeping profusely with relief and gratitude - and quickly dealt with the rubbish on my floor (btw, ewww).

I prayed (again) - although this time to thank my Heavenly Father.  This story could have ended so differently, and what an amazing blessing to have it work out so perfectly in the end.

Sigh.  Grateful today for the opportunity to pray, both when in need and to express gratitude.