In honor of Ryan's birthday yesterday, here's a story just for my grandchildren. See if you can guess the characters.

One night, as Ryan’s mommy was tucking him into bed, she discovered that the diamond was missing from the ring that Ryan’s daddy had given to her. This made her very very sad. When Ryan saw her sad face, he asked what was wrong. When she told him about the missing diamond, he suggested they say a prayer to find it.

Ryan’s mommy thought about all the errands they had done that day and all the places they’d been. She could hear the wind outside the bedroom window and remembered that it had been a very windy day. She was worried that the diamond had fallen out while they were outside and that it might be lost forever. But she had a lot of faith and she knew that Ryan did too, so they knelt down together. Ryan suggested that his mommy say the prayer since it was her ring. And she did.

When Ryan’s daddy came home, she told him what had happened and asked if he had any suggestions. He told her that it would be hard to find the diamond but he knew that miracles happen when people use their faith and that he thought Ryan and his mommy had a lot of faith.

That night Ryan’s mommy dreamed about the ring blowing in the wind. When she woke up the next morning, she knew what she needed to do. She put a new bag in her vacuum cleaner and then vacuumed the house. Thank goodness it wasn’t too big of a house! After she had vacuumed every nook and cranny, she spread newspaper on the kitchen floor and then began to empty the bag and search through it for the missing diamond.

The diamond wasn’t very big – only ¼ carat, but to Ryan’s mommy it was the perfect diamond because it was the one his daddy had given her to tell her of his eternal love. As Ryan’s mommy searched and sifted through all the bits of dust and paper and other contents of the bag, she kept watching for and trying to feel the diamond.

After about 5 minutes, she saw something sparkly. Could it be her diamond? It was!!! To her delight she found the diamond among all the other “stuff” that had been vacuumed. And what do you think she and Ryan did next? They knelt down and said a prayer of thanks.