Engagement Ring & Wedding Band Set

I’ve been HAPPILY divorced and re-married for almost FIVE years. For some reason, I still have my old wedding ring set (and my old wedding dress so look for that too)! Time to get rid of this thing… Here’s my story! It’s long. Parts of it are actually sad. But it has a VERY happy ending. I met my ex in high school. We got married at 19. I moved away from all my family and friends to a different state to be with him for his job. Any time we came back to our home-town to visit he complained about spending time with my family and friends. So, I lost a lot of my friends and was not as close to my family as I should have been. About six months into our marriage I caught him cheating with a girl on MySpace (oh good old Myspace). Then I caught him cheating with a girl I went to grade school with (did I mention I went to a CATHOLIC grade school?). Then another girl I went to high school with. Then I caught him cheating with some girl he went on a double-date “just to help out a friend” with… You get the trend here, right? I married a CHEATER. And I refused to believe that saying “Once a cheater, always a cheater.” Then I realized that I married a verbally-abusive, alcoholic, pathetic excuse for a man. It started small. He’d throw little jabs my way, belittling my job or the fact that I was going to college. Then he started with the names. You know those names that no woman should EVER be called? Yeah, those ones. Then the verbal abuse turned into physical abuse. I got thrown into our TV, shoved into our sliding-glass door, locked out in the middle of the night and forced to sleep outside, held against a wall, held down with weapons pressed against me… it was bad. But I stayed. Like a lot of women in abusive relationships, I stayed for all sorts of excuses that I made for myself. I didn’t “believe” in divorce. I was afraid of what might happen if I tried to leave. I was afraid of starting over. I was lost. I wasn’t ready to give up. And I genuinely wanted to fight for my marriage. He was the stereotypical abuser. Swore on his life that it would “never happen again.” Swore that the cheating was over. Begged and pleaded and cried! Oh, yes, he cried. A lot. He cried “woah is me” more than any person ever should. In his eyes, the world was always against him. So he took it out on me. Then, one September day… He was away for work and I discovered yet another girl he had cheated with. This time things were different. I just didn’t care anymore. I didn’t cry. I didn’t hesitate. I was done! And I was SO HAPPY to be done! It was like this huge weight had been taken off my shoulders! My brother came out to help me move before my ex returned. We loaded anything I could fit into my parents tiny GMC pickup and left pretty much everything else I owned behind. Including my dog Ruger, whom I found and raised since he was a puppy. I had no place for him to live and my ex had promised that I would get him back when I did find a place that allowed dogs. He changed his mind and still has my baby, Ruger… Our divorce took almost TWO YEARS because my ex continued to make excuses for not signing the paperwork. That December he actually came back to our hometown and sat out front of my parents house (in the rain) refusing to leave the signed divorce papers until I came out to talk to him… I wasn’t even there at the time. He ended up “accidentally” dropping off some paperwork for his dad’s house that was being foreclosed… Yeah… a lot of intelligence there. I have since met, fallen in love, and married an incredible man! He treats me and our new baby girl like princesses. He is proof that there are GREAT men in this world. It’s been quite some time since I’ve worn this ring. I picked it out, purchased my own wedding bands, and now it’s been lying in a junk drawer for years. It actually does deserve to be the sparkle in a happy marriage!