The ring.

Tonight she pranced around the living room with my wedding ring on. Her face lit up with the suggestion that she could wear it.

She carefully slipped it on and as it engulfed her tiny finger, she beamed with delight.
Her joy took me back to my own childhood.

I remember thinking as a little girl that there was no more beautiful or perfect thing in the world than my mother's wedding ring.
I would ask my mom if I could have it someday, not really understanding the meaning behind it or the depth of the covenant it represented.
I asked her each time she took it off and put it on the kitchen windowsill to wash dishes if I could hold it for just a little while and keep it safe for her. She obliged.
Years passed and the day came when I was to become engaged. Our engagement wasn't well-planned or lengthy. I don't remember being concerned about having a beautiful ring, or any of the normal things a bride-to-be concerns herself with...
But on the evening that Chris and I were engaged, my parents gave us the single most valuable gift I have ever been given. My mother's wedding ring of 30 years.
Even today when I think back to the moment that my parents extended this priceless and sacrificial gift to Chris and I as he knelt on one knee before me, I weep. They wanted more than anything for our love to last, to the point that they gave us the most meaningful token of enduring love and covenant I had ever known.

I found myself hoping tonight as Avery whirled around the living room that someday she'll remember my wedding ring with the same fondness. I want my ring to represent to her the covenant her parents made, the unconditional love and support Chris and I share for her, and security that she'll always have a soft place to fall no matter where her decisions in life take her.

As a little girl, taken by the sparkle in my mom's ring, I couldn't have understood all of that in the same way I do today - but I knew it was special. Tonight, as Avery danced in dainty, giddy loops around my feet, she knew it was special too.