A Child's Prayer

Okay, so this is an older child I am talking about here... me.

I have to tell you a semi funny story.  I say semi funny, cuz it is a lot funnier when it is not happening to you, and it is not one of those end of the world stories, rather a simple thing, BUT it was a HUGE deal for me.

It all started last March...

Well I guess I should step back a little further, and explain that my wedding ring or actually "rings" is a set of five bands.  Like this:

1 small plain band
1 diamond band
1 large wedding plain band
1 diamond band
1 small plain band

I REALLY LOVE my ring, it is simple and yet have never seen anyone else with anything like it which suits me...

I choose not to have them sautered, because then it would be too thick to ever remove and/or bend my knuckle.  Also I thought it would be fun to mix it up whenever I wanted to.  I am still happy with this decision, especially as I have been pregnant and have been able to switch out to a tiny band that I can wear throughout the fat swollen stages...

Anyway, enough history of the ring.

In March of 2010, I was on one of those "mix it up" kicks and decided to wear the middle wedding band and a small diamond band on my right hand ring finger and three of the other bands on my left.

If you know much about ring measurements, you will know that the hand you use everyday is slightly larger than the other.  Well, I am right handed.  So, after wearing the rings this way for months, one day I noticed that it was stuck, I was able to remove the smaller band but the thicker band was there for the long haul!.  My finger was swollen all around it and I didn't know how to get it off.

My skin is pretty sensitive to metals, especially when there is no room for it to breath, so I started having some major skin irritation.  Not only was my finger swollen and the skin in major pain, but I started to majorly panic.  It made me overwhelmingly claustrophobic, and irrational thoughts start entering your head about loosing the finger...  On to p if that all, we were about to leave to go on  a family trip to Utah too, so that made my need feel even more dire.

I made it through one night- then the next day I was so distressed and not knowing what to do (I had once seen in an urgent care in North Carolina a girl with a ring stuck on her finger having a major panic attack and hyperventilating and screaming for them to cut the ring off...) So, I started calling local urgent cares, to see if they could cut it off.  One or two literally laughed at me like I was an idiot "you just pull it off your finger..." uh yeah dude- you are kind of a jerk!   They said I had to go to the emergency room... I was panicking even more.

I was trying not to cry too, and hyperventilate in my car with my 7 month old baby strapped in her seat alone.  Finally, I called my mom and she (thanks heaven for someone who knows what they are talking about) said to call a jeweler.  Well it was 8 in the morning, I had barley slept and so I had to head back home and wait until 10 for the shops to open.

I found one who said he would be happy to cut it off, I went in and showed him and he was like, "yea this thing isn't coming off any other way."  He was so nice... the ring cutter was sorta dull and they were having problems with it but after 45 minutes I was cut free.

I cannot tell you the relief that flooded through me.  My finger was safe, I was free from the trap all was well.

All was well, except for my cut up ring...

So, they fixed it.  I had them resize it a bit, so that we wouldn't have this problem in the future.

I picked it up about 4 months ago.  Anyway, I stuck it on my right hand ring finger and it was a little loose.  I left it there anyway...  that is until about a month ago.

This is where the story gets annoyingly familiar.

We were on vacation, and the ring was loose, so I stuck it on my middle finger on my right hand, and since I am not really a jewelry girl, I totally forgot about it after that- in the meantime I have been putting on some extra weight and fluids.  Then, last Saturday I was out with some friends and we were talking and I looked down and noticed that it was not on the proper ring finger....

I tired taking it off- and it was STUCK!

I tried not to panic... we hadn't even sat down to watch the movie.

I started praying internally that I could not panic.  That I could be calm.  I felt sick through the whole show, and felt like something wasn't right, but I knew I couldn't do anything about it at least until Monday so I just kept praying.

I prayed half the night through and continued through the next few days.

I didn't panic too often.  Whenever I felt like I was about to panic, I would say an urgent little prayer.

But every once in a while the feeling of being caught in a trap would just seize me up in fear.  (maybe this sounds melodramatic, but I promise if it ever happens to you, you will know exactly how I feel)

I prayed every night not to have a panic attack as I could feel my heart speeding up in fear and sickness that I couldn't get this ring off.  I was seriously continually blessed with the ability to control my emotions.

Since the ring wasn't moving and I was starting to get stress-water blisters around my finger that hurt really bad.  The skin behind my ring was trapping moisture and all water logged (gross but true and so it hurt even more).

 I had pretty much come to the conclusion that Thursday morning when Justin was home he could watch Etta and I could go back and have it cut off again...

Well, yesterday I was blogging, cuz I do that a lot and I just tried the ring (mind you that very morning I couldn't even move it a 1/16th of an inch up or down it was that tight.)  But it came right off.

I cannot express the relief that flooded through me, and I immediately teared up.

I couldn't even speak, I felt a flood of thankfulness and have felt the need to thank Heavenly Father about every 10 minutes since.

It may sound like such a silly thing to  have such a stressful experience over, but I honestly can't explain the fear that takes over, luckily, the Spirit helped me to be clam daily and if you think I said one prayer morning and night that simply doesn't come close to the truth I had to ask for help about every 15 minutes I was that worried about it.  Thank heaven for large and small blessings.

It reminds me of the scripture about the flaxen cords, how at first the bands of sin are so small and removable, and then they become like chains... and I think a 1/4 wide golden band stuck around a finger might be what those chains can feel like... only eternally much more stressful and extremely more important to remove.

But I really just had to write this down because it WAS answered so sweetly by my Father in Heaven that I can't over look it.  The answer didn't come immediately and I HAD to rely on him daily just to make it through.  I hope I can always be aware of the answers and blessing I receive daily for my little and big stresses a,d that you too can be aware of God's tender mercies.

Okay so I took a quick picture of me... in my painting clothes, no makeup- or in other words, one of those "hot" pictures but it is recent, feel free to tell me I look SKINNY.... a little less than a month to go!