The Only Explanation is that it was a Miracle

When you pride yourself as being organized and knowing where everything is, imagine what it feels like when you lose something of great value.  Last month I shared that my current circumstances were overwhelming on every front and stress can play many games on your psyche to the point of losing focus.  Have you ever experienced arriving at a destination without recollection of driving there?  You may have been so intense in your thoughts that your brain automatically took over for you.  That is the mode I functioned in for ten days last month.

After a four-day successful speaking tour, I was flying high on adrenalin.  On the first day, I sold out of the boxes of books I had taken for the entire week.   The response was remarkable and many people were encouraged and motivated to make changes in their lives.  

I changed into my traveling clothes, put my jewelry in my purse, got into my car for the long trek home, turned on my phone and what I read caused me to start shaking.  In a couple of words -- I was the victim of fraud, identity theft, and our online business had been shut down.

Shock comes in many different forms

For the next five hours, I sat in my car talking on the phone trying to make sense of it all.  By the time I got home, I was a wreck and my head was spinning.  For the next ten days, I barely left the office trying to salvage the loss, closing bank accounts, and figuring out what to do next.

On day eleven, I had to finally look in a mirror, get dressed and go to work at our store.  When I opened my jewelry box, I noticed that my cherished ring was missing.   Just that one, everything else was there. The last place I wore it was when I was on the tour.  I retraced my steps, called the hotel where I stayed, and searched my car but came up empty.

It wasn't just a ring.  My husband had purchased the center stone four decades earlier.  As a gemologist, he had never seen a natural pink Imperial Topaz before and knew how rare and valuable it was.  He never wanted to sell it so made it into a ring for me a few years ago.  Now, it was missing.  I felt sick.

My friends were praying that it would turn up, and I prayed that the angels would somehow return it to me.  This is where the story takes a whole different turn......

A few days later, I went to our mailbox and the key would not work.  Strange!  I tried a key in a different box and got so confused I couldn't remember my box number.  I tried every key on my key ring.  Nothing worked.

Frustrated, I went home and started looking in my desk drawer for the post office card with the box number on it.  My desk drawer is well organized with pens, business cards, plastic gem bags and everything I need for mailing.

While I was looking for the replacement key and box number I noticed a small gemstone ziplock bag tucked under the scissors and pens in the back corner.  I pulled it out to put it with the other plastic bags and my ring was in it.  That was impossible!  If I had not lost that mailbox key, I probably never would have found it for years.  This is the first time I have reorganized that drawer in probably 15 years.

An additional twist is that I never found that spare key but when I went to the post office to get a new key, the clerk said, "Your key is on your key chain.  Right there!"  Feeling stupid and elated at the same time with people in line behind me, I didn't take the time to tell her the story.  But I laughed all the way home.  Considering my husband had tried all my keys as well, there is NO WAY that key was there earlier.

We will never know how it got there, but I thank God for answered prayer.  This experience spoke loudly to me.  No matter what we go through, God is there to help us.  And He has a sense of humor!

A few days later, standing at the counter in the post office, I heard a voice next to me that I recognized.  It was my son's voice.  He walked out of our lives with his family seven years ago with no explanation and said he would never speak to us again. I looked up to see him with his two youngest ones.  I said, in a chipper upbeat voice, "Hi, how are you?"  Without looking at me he said curtly "Hello."  Then I asked him if these were his two little girls and he said, "One is a boy."  Embarrassed but maintaining my composure on the outside I said, "Oh, yes, I see his face now.  They are both so cute."  

The lady behind the counter had read my book and in this small town would know exactly what was happening.  She looked uncomfortable.  I left, waved good-bye to my two little grandbabies, went to my car and burst into tears.  

I am so thankful that I have two other grands who are in my life.

When my daughter asked him why he wasn't wearing a shirt he replied, "I'm wearing my abs!"

Welcome to a Fly on the Wall group post. Today six bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes.

Buzz around, see what you think, then click on these links for a peek into some other homes:

Baking In A Tornado                  https://www.BakingInATornado.com

Never Ever Give Up Hope             https://batteredhope.blogspot.com

Menopausal Mother                     http://www.menopausalmom.com/

Spatulas on Parade                     https://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com

Bookworm in the Kitchen            https://www.bookwormkitchen.com/

Follow me home                        https://followmehome.shellybean.com