Day 7 - My Most Treasured Item....

On the day before my wedding, I recieved one of my most treasured possesions.  As a child I used to sneak into the bedroom just to play with them.  I loved to put them on and watch them sparkle in the sunlight.  I never understood the love or meaning behind them, until I grew older. 

These are my Nana's wedding rings.  I cried when she handed them to me.  Sadly, I'm allergic to yellow gold, so I can only wear them for short periods of time, because they cause my hands to swell.  Just having is enough for me, I plan to one day tell the story of an amazing and loving woman, as I hand them down to my daughter.

  When John & I were preparing to get married, we chose to wait to purchase actual wedding rings and chose to use another pair instead.  On the way home from Iraq, John's unit made a pitstop in Ireland.  While there, John picked up a beautiful pair of claddaghs, one for each of us. 

Each piece of the claddagh has a meaning.  The hands of the ring are shown holding the heart and the hands denote friendship and togetherness, the heart itself signifies love and the crown in the claddagh ring stands for loyalty.  Each of these is a cornerstone of a relationship.  Although, we've since then purchased wedding rings, my claddagh has never left my hand. 

Last but not least, this is my wedding set.  John and I picked it out together around the time of our second anniversary.  We had chose to wait to get them, because we couldn't see picking out a wedding set, charging it to a credit card, and then having to work to pay it off throughout our first years of marriage.  We chose instead to get our home settled, get finacially established, and then go together to get our rings.  I suppose, in the opinion of most, we did it a bit backwards......oh well.