The Story of the Prodigal Diamond

As you all know, Friday, February 4th was the fateful day that my diamond escaped from the claws of my engagement band. My best suspicion was that it fell off while I was working on bar at Starbucks. It was more than a suspicion...I pretty much had that instinctive knowledge that my diamond was somewhere on the countertops or floors of my store. My managers and fellow baristas were all SO compassionate upon hearing that I had lost my diamond, and all eagerly put in time to look for it.

My managers even sifted through the dirt of that day's sweep job with their own hands. That's how much they care for me. :)

However, during all of Friday's searching high and low at Starbucks, the diamond never showed up. Meanwhile, I was at home all afternoon sweeping my own house and sifting through the dirt, vacuuming and sifting through that dirt, just in case my intuition was wrong and the diamond had fallen off before I got to Starbucks that day.

By the time Saturday morning hit I had pretty much come to terms with the fact that my diamond was gone forever. Brent and I were saddened; not completely devastated, but saddened. :(

Monday morning as I'm working on chores in my home, my phone starts ringing. I get to it right as the ringing stops, and I see that one of my managers tried to call me. The thought that she was calling about my diamond doesn't even cross my mind; as I press the buttons to listen to the voicemail she left me, I think that she was calling me to ask if I could cover someone's shift today.

Instead, this is what I hear: "Hayley, you are going to flip out. Kyle found your diamond."

I'm SO thankful for how God lined things up so perfectly for my diamond to be discovered that day. Even though the floors had been swept and mopped six times since my diamond was lost, my manager thought to remind Kyle to keep a lookout for it while he was sweeping the floors. Kyle swept the floors and didn't find anything. He mopped the floors and didn't find anything. But on his final stroke with the mop, he saw something shiny skid across the floor, ricochet against a wall and slide to a halt two inches from going underneath the dark black abyss of the refrigerator. He stooped down, picked up the shiny thing, and the celebration began.

When I got off the phone with my manager telling her I couldn't wait to come and pick up my stone, I shrieked and shrieked and jumped and jumped for joy.

Look at how tiny it is too! I know this is a really fuzzy picture, but this is the diamond on its side in my hand...you can barely even see it, and yet someone found it while mopping! That shouldn't have happened! But it did!

My rings and the diamond are safely in the possession of my jeweler for repair as we speak. :)

Prayer Request

Today as I was driving home from work I discovered that the center diamond of my engagement band is missing. I know that I have a lot of "prayer warrior" friends...would you please join me in asking God to let the diamond be found and returned to my hand?

I'm sure it must have fallen out while I was working at Starbucks this morning. I KNOW I saw the diamond on the ring last night, and I'm 85% sure I saw the diamond on the ring when I was washing my hands at work this morning...so it must have happened sometime after that.

I've got quite a mystery on my hands (no pun intended). Not only is the center diamond missing, but both the engagement and wedding bands are severely deformed. I noticed the rings fitting tighter on my hands yesterday, but I attributed it to swollen fingers and didn't examine the rings. When I found out that the diamond was missing, I took the rings off to examine them and found them to be grossly misformed.

What in the world? How did this happen? I've been wracking my brain to try to remember something I've done in the past few days that could have caused this kind of damage. I haven't remembered ANYTHING of the sort yet. No unusual lifting, nothing.

Weird, weird. Almost heartbreaking. But it is good and encouraging and uplifting to know that we know and trust a GOOD God, and that all the jewels on the Earth are His to begin with. He gives, and He takes away, and blessed be His name.

"Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all." ~ 1 Chronicles 29:12

My Awesome Husband!!!!

So I just recently became an avid fan of Gilmore Girls. I've started slowly watching them via Netflix, and am now in the middle of the 2nd season. Brent hears me ask him almost every night if we can PLEASE please just buy the 1st season on iTunes cuz I know I'll watch it many times over in the course of my life.

Well today a package came in the mail, addressed to him. He had told me such a package was coming, and had instructed me to immediately open in and put it in the fridge...it would contain perishables. When the package came I forgot all such instructions and set it down by the front door.

When he came home from work, he saw the package on the floor, knew what it was, opened it and put it in the fridge without me knowing. Then he told me to go look. This is what I saw.

You see, I was down on the couch sick for most of last week, and he had such compassion on me that he ordered the COMPLETE Gilmore Girls series for me, thinking it would get to me while I was still sick. That's why he told me it was perishable and I should open it and put it in the fridge...he wanted me to open the package and discover his gift and enjoy it right away. :) Unfortunately it came a little too late to enjoy while I was distraught on the couch, but the site of this in the fridge still made me squeal and scream and jump up and down and hug him. :)

(Sorry for fuzzy pictures. This post was done in a huge rush...I'm eager to open my gift. :)