were out on a date night Friday, and our conversation turned to wedding planning and specifically engagement rings. She told me that she did not want the typical HUGE diamond standing out on a tiny little band. She then described in detail (including a picture diagram) of what she would like to see in her engagement ring.

"I do not want a diamond as the center stone. Instead the diamonds should be small and encircling another stone." She did not care what the center stone was and I was thankful for that. "The band should not be too thin as to be dwarfed by the stones on top."

Wow -- what a tall order. Where was I going to find something like that? How would I afford something like that? At the time I was unemployed, and we were talking about getting married the summer of 2009, a mere 6 months away. I had been laid off at my previous job at

the end of 2008. But I knew that God's pockets were far deeper than mine.

Several weeks later, a friend came up to me and said, "I have been trying to get rid of this ring for several years, and no matter what I have done to try and sell it has not sold, and today I know why. God told me that I was to give you this ring. I do not care what you do with it. Sell it and get a new ring, change the stones, give it to her as is. All I know is that you are supposed to have this." And with that the jewelry box that held the ring was left in my hand and she walked away.

I was flabbergasted. I could not believe it. What did it look like? I opened the box and inside I found a ring that matched Katie's desired engagement ring with a matching wedding band. I was amazed. The only thing that I wanted to change was the center stone. There was a ruby in the center, and since we had talked about a June 6th wedding, I had wanted to have the June stone