Engagement Ring Falls from Hot Air Balloon (VIDEO)

F My Life: It's Funny, It's True, Except When It Happens to You

James Ng was going to pop the question to his fiancée while riding in a hot-air balloon. His attempt to woo his true love came to a grinding halt when the engagement ring fell 500 feet, out of the balloon and into the woods below.

Ng, 26, had hidden the 1-carat diamond ring inside his camera case, which he promptly dropped.

"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 said. Sonya Bostic, 27, caught on, however. "When he reacted the way he did, that's when I knew," she says. "Wait a second! My ring's in there!"

Ng decided to drop to one knee and propose anyway. Luckily, Bostic said yes.

Once they were back on the ground, the real fun began. Ng Googled maps and marked off search areas. Ng and a friend initiated a massive search effort for seven days while Bostic wore a $9 Wal-Mart ring on her finger.

Then, he magically stumbled upon 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 it was 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."

And that's not just a bunch of hot air.