I'm on my third wedding band. I'm not all that excited to admit it, but there are reasons. I still have every single one of them.
My first one, the one that was blessed by the woman who married us, is a beautiful band with diamonds all along in a channel (I think?) setting. It fits my engagement ring, which is on the ornate antique kind of looking side. A few weeks after we were married, my ring finger started swelling, and had little red bumps all around it. Not pretty.
We figured it was the moisture getting into the rings. I could wear my engagement ring alone just fine, but not the wedding band. Onto wedding band number two...
The second one is a mid size plain band. Very thin. But it worked. I could wear it alone or with my engagement ring. After time, the edges started cutting into my finger though. Not a good choice.
Then I got pregnant with Fynn, and couldn't wear any of my rings for quite a while! It took a long time after not being pregnant to be able to wear my rings again...
And then I got pregnant with Paige. My fingers were slim, and stayed slim, and I desperately wanted to wear my wedding rings. Just the engagement ring was working out for me (most of the time, because sometimes they'd scratch my kiddo... ), and normally that would have sufficed, but deep in my heart I truly needed a wedding band. I get these weird things that I become obsessed with and have to have...
On to wedding band number three. A simple, rounded, skinny but solid platinum band. It's perfect. I wear it mostly by itself, and it fits our life. It doesn't get caught on anything, it's just there - part of me - part of us.
The journey to the perfect wedding band has not been unlike the journey of finding peace within myself, I think. It's still a work in progress, but I'm finding the older I get, the more simplicity makes me happy. My marriage is simple, we love and respect each other. Parenting is simple, we follow the lead of our children. Life is simple, I try to do things that make me and my family happy. When I look at it in the grand scheme of things it's all simple.
But when you get caught up in the nitty gritty of daily life, it's not simple. I just keep reminding myself that simplicity is key, and with it comes much less stress.
My third wedding band is the perfect one. It's the one that reminds me not only of my husband and our love, but to keep simplicity in mind as well. The simplicity that gives us room to breathe and keep on keeping on.