Lost & Found

Last year when we were in Hawaii right before Christmas, Aaron and I went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. It was breathtaking and beautiful as well as being my very first time, so that made it extra fun. After we had been out snorkeling for awhile, we came up for air and Aaron said he had found a ring. It was a man's ring that looked pretty impressive (a gorgeous Hawaiian wood and we think platinum) and was engraved with a last name and Dec 2007. A very recent loss. Since it was engraved, we thought it was important and decided to try to find the man who lost it online when we got home. We said, "wouldn't it be cool if we could return it to him?" But what are the chances, really?

Throughout the rest of the trip we made up possible scenarios of whose it was. My favorite was a mishap with the Hawaiian Mafia, and his finger was somewhere in the bottom of the ocean as well. haha!

Fast forward to last week. We had kept it in a safe place, forgetting of it's existence until Aaron approached me at the computer and said , "hey--look up this name." I realized that it was the name on the ring, so I typed it in-- and a Mike came up who wrote a bike trail review in Hawaii in December 2007. We decided to whitepage the name, and a list of 21 people in the US came up as well. We noticed Mike's name again and it said he was from Iowa, so we figured, "What the heck! Let's call him first."

Aaron made the call--hesitant to do it at first--but then I heard him say, "Hi, my name is Aaron Stroud and I am from Seattle. We went to Hawaii last year for Christmas and I found a ring...." pause. laughter. "uh-huh--ya!... I found it when my wife and I were snorkling..ya..sure I'll talk to him." (phone handed over to husband.) Repeat of previous intro...."awesome! Your honeymoon? Man, that is so great! Ya--I found it and then we forgot about it until now. We looked up the last name and I guess you wrote a bike review in Hawaii in December, so we figured we would try your name first. (awesome laughter) I can just pop it in an envelope and send it to you, no problem!"

And so the story is told that Mr. and Mrs. were on their honeymoon in Hawaii when Mr. lost it when he was snorkeling:)

We cannot even tell you how happy finding the owner of that ring made us. Isn't that a perfect ending to this story? Horray for being lost...and now found.

How about you? Any lost and found stories that can beat this?