James Ng was set to propose to his fiancee on a hot-air balloon ride until the symbol of their love fell 500 feet into the woods.

BURTON, Ohio  This is a story of love rewarded. Twice. James Ng was set to propose to his fiancée on a hot-air balloon ride when the symbol of their love fell 500 feet into the woods. Ng, 26, pastor of New Mercies Community Church, had hidden the 1-carat diamond ring in a box in his camera case. As they floated along on Oct. 29, the case slipped from his hands. "I just watched it tumble, and it hit a tree and spun around, and the stuff fluttered out of it," Ng recalls. "And I just put my head down on the side of the balloon, and I was just — I just couldn't believe I'd just done that. "My first thought was don't tell her ... and buy another ring — which it took me forever to afford the one I had," Ng says. But Sonya Bostic, 27, caught on. "When he reacted the way he did, that's when I knew," she says. "Wait a second! My ring's in there!" Ng dropped to one knee and proposed anyway. She said yes. "I got up and I was like, 'What river did we just pass?' " Ng says. "I started trying to get a feel for where we were." Back on the ground, he Googled maps, plotted flight paths and marked off search grids. For seven days, as Ng and a friend searched, Bostic wore a twist tie on her finger, then a $9 Wal-Mart ring. Then, as Ng thrashed through brush and brambles with a machete — the camera bag! "We ran up to it ... and we're like, 'Yes!' " Ng recalls gleefully. The only thing still in the bag was the ring box. Ng and Bostic say God gave them a miracle. "I just kept looking at it," Bostic says. "It was so beautiful. It was perfect. It was everything that I wanted. And that we found it, and I never thought in a million years we'd find it, that was truly God. It really was." Bridget Pericolo of Parsippany, N.J., can relate. She set her wedding ring in a disposable cup for safekeeping Monday. Then her husband, Angelo, disposed of it in the trash as he left for work. Before anyone noticed, that trash was headed for the Parsippany transfer station. Bridget called Angelo, and Angelo called the dump. Supervisor Michael Brotons and crew Edgar Lopez and Joseph McGee dug through 10 tons of trash, and they found the ring. There's one thing lost-and-then-found wedding rings seem to have in common. As Bridget Pericolo said when she recovered the ring she has worn for 55 years, "I think it was a miracle." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more