Shocking?? Perhaps...but, it's true! Chris and I are getting married on January 29, 2011 so save the date!
Here is the engagement story for those of you who haven't heard yet:
Well, let's back up to September...When I came home from Germany, it was pretty clear to both of us that we were going to get married and began to make plans to that end. Chris talked to my dad and picked out a ring. I didn't know exactly when I was going to receive that ring, but we were definitely already starting to make plans for a wedding at the end of January. On Thursday, the 23rd of September, Chris called me to tell me that he was asked to go on a short deployment overseas. Although inconvenient timing with our wedding plans and him being in the middle of the semester in his seminary classes, he knew he needed to go and so we decided that he should. And since they told him he'd probably leave that Tuesday, it meant that we definitely needed to make our engagement official that weekend.
Funnily enough, my ring was in Tacoma where Chris had it made but he was back in Vancouver with no opportunity to come up before his departure. So I did what any girl would do in those circumstances: I picked up my own ring! :-) He arranged everything for me to get it and when I picked it up the girl sweetly handed me a bag of goodies and told me that the ring was wrapped to ensure that I couldn't peak.
Saturday afternoon (09/25/10) I drove down to Vancouver and passed on the ring to Chris as soon as I arrived. We were both starving when I got there so we decided to go out to dinner right away. I didn't think Chris had the ring with him since I had just given it to him and hardly turned my back to him, but in his special ops style, my love managed to unwrap the box and put it in his pocket without me seeing. Very very sneaky!
We went to dinner at the
Jerusalem Cafe near his house. We had a nice meal and were almost finished when suddenly Chris got up and started talking about this fountain next to me. I think he asked me if I thought it might be a wishing well? But it was all a little confusing to me, and before I had time to really realize what was happening, he moved the chair next to me and was down on one knee in one fluid motion. He told me he loves me and asked me to marry him. And what do you think I said? Well, of course I said, YES!
The funny thing was that we were in a restaurant full of people and nobody seemed to notice or care that such a special moment had just taken place right under their noses! Oh well...we were happy and the lack of enthusiasm from the other restaurant patrons didn't bother us one bit.
However we did get some enthusiasm from a stranger when we went out for Frozen Custard (yum!) after dinner. This old man started talking to us there and when we told him we were recently engaged he became so excited for us. Turns out that he is a pastor of a church down there and when he found out that we are Christians he began to quote Ephesians 5 to us and gave us a little blessing.
Neither of our families were around to share the news with that evening except via telephone, but we were thankful to stop by the Mack's house to share our excitement with our dear friends.
As it turned out, Chris did not leave for another week after that so we were able to spend a few more days together. We do covet your prayers for him right now as he is deployed until November.
As for me, I'm finishing up my last quarter of school and Lord willing, I intend to graduate this December...as long as all my wedding daydreaming doesn't interfere with my homework getting done! :-)
