My Diamond Wedding Ring Miracle

Wednesday was my first subbing day. I was called last week to see if I would sub for the PE teacher. It was really fun! I went to the school about 20 minutes early and had to set up (which took longer than I thought). Luckily, I had kindergarten first and they have a shortened PE Time. The game I was to play with them was a little complicated but I made it through the 25 minutes. One little girl was all worried because I had them line up at the wrong door and did a few things different than the normal PE teacher. The other kids just went with the flow and did what I asked. I had to explain several times that I wasn’t Coach Deaton and I was sorry I did things differently. After Kindergarten, I had to go outside for recess duty for about 45 minutes. I walked around and helped kids was all over the blacktop and the in the grass (there was another lady out there with me). Brittney came out to recess, so she came and gave me a hug and Hayley came out too. After recess duty, I had about an hour before my next assignment, so I really read through my lesson plan and had a better idea of how to run the next PE Classes after lunch.

I decided I’d better eat my lunch before my next recess duty. I went into the Faculty Room (by myself) to eat and I had my phone so I could read my Conference Talk while I ate. I had just eaten the second bite of my sandwich when I looked down at my hand and noticed my diamond was no longer in my ring. There was nothing on my prongs! My heart just sank to my feet—I think I was in shock a little too! I hurried and put my sandwich back in my lunch bag and walked to the office to tell Bonnie (she is the assistant secretary and she is in our ward). She was talking to someone so I waited and my heart was just racing inside thinking of how was I going to find a little diamond—I had been all over the place—all over the playground and all over the grass. When Bonnie was done, I told her I just lost my diamond and my voice was totally cracking because I was on the verge of tears. She asked when the last time I noticed it and the last time I remembers was when I put it on this morning. The assistant principal came in and we started to look. I backtracked to the faculty room and searched under the table and to the door that lead outside. I went to the PE office to check under the desk where I had been sitting reading the lesson plans and couldn’t see anything. As I walked out of the office, I saw Mallory’s teacher, Ms. Ottley, in her classroom by herself. I walked in and told Ms. Ottley. She said, “You had better find a place to pray.”. I told her I had been praying in my mind ever since I saw it missing. Ms. Ottley told me she would have her class come and help me when they returned from computers. I decided to go outside and check the floor of my truck. I searched the pavement as I walked out and didn’t see anything. As I was walking outside, I heard Mr. Clough over the PA system make an announcement that a substitute had lost her wedding ring and for the kids to keep their eyes open and that there would be a reward in the office for anyone who found it. As I walked back in the school, I thought, I need to check my purse. I had been digging in my purse looking for my phone when I first got to the school. So I went back to the PE office and started looking through my purse. At the same time, I was trying to call Scott and work to let him know. While I was on hold and searching my purse, Ms. Ottley came in and said, “You need to look in your car and in your pockets.” I told her I had just come from the truck and she started rummaging through my coat pockets. I told her I hadn’t worn my coat yet so I started taking things out of my jacket pocket I had on. I had a dry erase marker and some magnets in my pocket and then I stuck my hand in my “Empty” pocket and felt a little hard stone and pulled out my diamond!!!! I couldn’t believe it!! Well, I could believe it because I was holding it in my hand!! I was very emotional as I hugged and thanked Ms. Ottley for her inspiration and help and for knowing where to look. It was about 10 minutes from the time I noticed my diamond gone until the time I pulled it out of my pocket. MIRACLES HAPPEN!! Meanwhile, I was still on hold waiting to talk to Scott. Trevor (a guy at work) came back on to tell me Scott was now with another customer and to see if he could call me back later. I told him to have Scott call me if he had a minute before 11:45. I hurried to the office to tell Bonnie and Mr. Clough that my diamond had been found in my pocket. I then went back to the PE office to say a prayer of gratitude to Heavenly Father for inspiring Ms. Ottley in helping me know where to look. I was right by Hayley’s class and I caught her eye and told her to come into the hall. She had no idea that the missing ring announcement had to do with me. I quickly told her the story and reminded her that Heavenly Father truly answers our simple prayers for things that are important to us. Ms. Ottley called Mallory out of computers too and I shared how Ms. Ottley helped answer my prayer.

I went into Ms. Ottley’s class again to thank her again. She told me how after I left her class the first time, she stopped and said a prayer. She said she had an image of a car and a pocket come into her mind. She told me she has lost many things over the years and she never hears a voice telling her where to look—she sees an image in her mind (she told me of an experience with a lost credit card and she saw a white lunch sack in her mind—the pharmacist had put her credit card in the white sack when picking up a prescription and the sack was in the garbage and she found it in the white sack in her garbage). Anyway, I thanked and thanked Ms. Ottley. I thanked her for being in tune and I thanked her for her spiritual gift because she has a spiritual gift. She then said something so profound (I have been thinking and pondering about this since Wednesday). She said, “Isn’t that why we go to church each Sunday, to partake of the Sacrament so we can ‘always have His Spirit to be with us’”? Wow! That is so true!! Ms. Ottley gave me a Ziploc bag to put my ring and diamond in.

Scott called me a few minutes later and was grateful to hear it had been found. I had about 7 minutes to hurry and eat my lunch before I needed to be outside for lunch recess.

The rest of the day subbing went really well. Mallory’s class came to PE as well as several neighbor kids (3^rd graders and 2^nd graders) that I knew.

After school, I took my ring and diamond to Aaron’s Jewelry to have them reset the diamond. I had absolutely no prongs on my ring—I need a whole new crown to hold my diamond. The lady at the jewelry store was amazed at my condensed version of my story—lucky is what she said – blessed and miraculous is what I said. It will take a week for them to fix my ring so I am wearing my pearl ring this week.

The Tale of the Missing Snow Boot

This morning Mallory and Hayley wanted to wear their snow pants and snow boots to school because there was about 3 inches of snow outside. I told them that was fine and they got all dressed and Mallory could not find one of her snow boots. She had worn them over the weekend and she had left them by the front door. On Saturday, when we were cleaning up, I told Mallory to get her boots and go put them in her closet. Well, one boot made it to the closet but the other was no where to be found. We searched everywhere (as much as you can search when you only have 30 minutes before the carpool to school leaves)!!! We pulled everything out of the bottom of her closet to see if the boot had fallen out of her shoe basket, we dumped out the shoe basket numerous times, we search under the bed, behind the bed and in all her drawers. We searched in all the bedrooms and under the beds. We searched the hall closet, the kitchen and the family room. I even went so far to search in the Christmas decoration bins that we had emptied on Saturday and taken back downstairs. The boot was no where to be found!! I told Mallory that in her morning prayers before school that she could maybe ask Heavenly Father to help her find her boot. I sent a very sad little Mallory to school with her "dress up" boots on because we couldn't find the snow boot. I told Mallory, as she walked out the door, that I would bring her boot to school if I found it (I volunteer in her first grade class every Monday)

After I got Mallory and Hayley off to school, Brittney and I sat down for some breakfast (Mallory and Hayley get breakfast at school--sometimes they eat at home and at school but today they just wanted to eat at school). Brittney was just about ready to say the blessing on the food and I told her that maybe she could ask Heavenly Father to help us find Mallory's boot. Amazingly, Brittney remembered to ask for help in her prayer (along with saying "Help us to be safe" about 3-4 times!!). After the prayer was over, Brittney and I began to eat. I looked down into the family room and I saw the pile of blankets we leave down by the couch to keep us warm and which the girls use to build forts. I told Brittney, "I think I need to go check under the blankets downstairs" and I went down and moved each one--still no boot. As I was stacking the blankets again Brittney said, "Look behind the Love Sac, Mom". I walked over to the Love Sac (our big bean bag chair) and I looked behind it and guess what I saw??? Yep, there was the boot just sitting there!!! Brittney and I were both so excited!! I had Brittney kneel down with me to say another prayer to thank Heavenly Father for helping us find the boot. After the prayer was done, I asked Brittney, "Do you know who helped us find the boot?". Brittney said, "Yes, Heavenly Father did!" I took a little moment to talk to Brittney about how Heavenly Father sent the Holy Ghost to help her know where the boot was. The Holy Ghost told her to tell me to look behind the Love Sac!! Brittney was so excited!!!

This was our little miracle that happened today!! I know little miracles happen all around us each and every day!! I really need to take more time daily to recognize these little miracles--both for myself and for my little girls!! I need to remember to sit down and record these little miracles too!! These little miracles will help build my little girls' faith and also their testimonies!! They are going to need to be sooo strong in the coming years!!

I really need to take time daily to help my girls to feel the Holy Ghost and then help them to RECOGNIZE the Holy Ghost and what it feels like!! I am so glad for this little experience this morning!!! One thing I noticed was that the house was more calm and quiet after Mallory and Hayley left for school (mornings are always crazy as we are all trying to get dressed, hair done, teeth brushed, etc.) --it was an easier time to feel and recognize the Holy Ghost!!

A few months ago I was reading the Church News. I was reading an article and a quote a mother said really made an impression on me. She said, "We as parents need to make opportunities for our kids to feel the spirit every day." I have thought a lot about that and I know it is important. want to add to it to say, "We as parents need to make opportunities for our kids to feel AND RECOGNIZE the spirit every day."