Call It Luck, If You Will

Tom constantly insists that he is the unluckiest person alive. He is always stopped by every red light and any train going through town, among other things. I insist he's pretty lucky because he has me... But there are times I have to agree that he comes across some pretty unfortunate circumstances.

He has had some bad luck with rings though.

And some really good luck.

Our lucky ring story goes as follows:

See these rings? These are our wedding rings.


This story involves both of our rings.

Chapter I - The Wedding Band
Tom bought me a gorgeous ring that had a small, simple wedding band - you know, the part that fits the ring but isn't worn until you're married. He kept that piece in the little black velvet ring box that he proposed with. One day, he lost it. He couldn't find it ANYWHERE. He searched his house up and down, asked everyone he knew, cleaned his car and searched it many times over. No luck. It was nowhere to be found. After accepting defeat, we went to Molinelli's Jewelers to order a new band. It came and we were set.
Unlucky.
We forgot about the little black box with the original wedding band... until one day...
I was getting into the passenger's side of our car. I raised the arm rest and THERE. IT. WAS. The little black box was under the arm rest, nestled tightly between the two seats. I could not believe my brown eyes! Tom and I celebrated that we had finally found it and laughed that it was later than we had hoped. We had no use for an extra band, so we journeyed back to Molinelli's with hopes to return the unused band. Unfortunately they could not refund our money as the original ring company wouldn't take it back. But they did offer to exchange it for store credit, that ended up coming in really handy...
Lucky.

Chapter II - Sunny Skies and Still 6 Inches of Snow
During the whole wedding band incident, the day of our wedding arrived. It was lovely, and though it had its hitches, it turned out just right. We were married in the morning in Salt Lake where the skies were blue and the sun was shining. We couldn't have asked for a prettier February day. After all of those festivities, we returned to Pocatello for the reception. Towards the end of the drive, the weather started to turn nasty. It started to lightly snow just before the reception... and then it kept snowing... and snowing... and snowing. So much snow that many people couldn't come to our reception because they were afraid if they left home they would not be able to get back. It all turned out lovely though.
Molinelli's has a promotion called Pray For Rain. If you purchase your ring there and put your name and wedding date on their calendar, you ought to pray for rain -or snow in our case. If on your wedding day there is more than 1/2" of rain or 3" of snow at the Pocatello Airport, you get your ring for free! Likely, right? (sarcasm) Well...
Check this out.
Believe it. 5.9" of snow on February 25, 2011 = $2000 check.
We were the first ever winners since they started the promotion in 2009. We were famous.
In the paper and on the news. We were a pretty big deal.
Lucky.

Chapter III - Ultimate Frisbee
Tom really enjoys a lively game of Ultimate Frisbee. This past summer one game in particular stood out to us. I got off work about 10:00pm (when I used to work evenings at the Front Desk) and met him at ISU's quad where he was playing. He grabbed his shoes and we left. The next morning, he realized he didn't bring home his watch or ring. He knew it was in his shoes so we couldn't figure out how it wasn't home. Someone must have stolen it... But instead of jumping to conclusions we searched our apartment up and down, then searched the quad, then called ISU's grounds department. Nothing. Nowhere to be seen or heard of. That was early in May. So, Tom needed another ring. Good thing we had a store credit... We found one and continued on. Five months or so later we bought Tom another watch when his backup one broke. We were lucky enough to find one exactly like the one he lost.
Unlucky. (But lucky too... with the store credit and the watch find.)

Chapter IV - Charlie, the Friendly Bus Mechanic
Charlie, the friendly bus mechanic works with Tom. They are pretty good buddies, as far as co-workers go. One day as Tom was getting off work, Charlie came to take the bus to gas it up when he noticed Tom's watch.
"I have one just like that I will sell to you..." Tom thought it odd that he offered to sell him an identical watch, but he continued the conversation. "Why do you have that watch?"
"I found it."
"Are you kidding me?"
"No, and it had a wedding ring on it..."
Say it ain't so! Tom was flabbergasted!! (I was too, but I don't know about it yet)
And so he commenced telling Charlie about the summer Ultimate game and how he hadn't seen his watch and ring since. Tom described the ring exactly and Charlie offered to bring it back to him the next day at work. Seven months since he had lost it, he found out his co-worker had it all along.
"I was going to pawn them off, but just never got around to it..."
Lucky. Lucky. Lucky.

So... Lucky or unlucky? Isn't it strange that in every day life the unlucky things greatly outweigh the lucky things? We claim to be unlucky, unfortunate, and forsaken, and yet there are so many blessings in our lives. Amazing.

Well, I'd say we're lucky when it comes to the things that matter most. (I can't deny that every train in Pocatello hunts for Tom though) More than lucky, we are blessed. Tremendously blessed.

Tom's ring is a perfect example of how God does hear and answer our prayers, but in his own time, not ours. If we keep that in mind, we can easily see how lucky we are.