News from 11/12/05

On Saturday the 12th, I got engaged :). Here is the story as Ann and I wrote it out after the fact. The name at the beginning of the paragraph tells who wrote that paragraph.

Ann: One Saturday, November 12, 2005 we had arranged to have an extended phone datea as we always did each month since we started dating long distance. I was suspicious about this 'phone date' because David doesn't usually plan stuff in advance and because he was specific that he would call me at 5pm. Usually, we leave it hanging more than that. But I wasn't sure at the time
David: The night before, my parents had given me a ride back from Emmaus' banquet to Michigan. Saturday morning, I drove down to Taylor, stopping in Kokomo at a florist to get some flowers. They were celebrating 100 years of being open, and thus had free munchies :). Another neat thing was praying with Dad before I left. We were standing in the kitchen, next to the breakfast table. While he prayed for safe travel and for my relationship with Ann, he got choked up. We were both very exited :) I got there a bit early and just hung out at Brent and Sara's place until 5 rolled around. As I drove over to Gerig Hall, I blocked traffic to talk with Kelly. After putting the flowers on the front desk, I called Ann
Ann: The call came at about 5:10 and woke me up from my much needed nap. I had just been in a concert at the Honeywell center the night before, and then up at 7am that morning to take the biology GRE that I needed to pass to graduate. Hence the need for a nap. I remember being very groggy when David called and incoherent and having a hard time putting sensible sentences together. But, we talked for a bit until David said somehting like "So I take it that, since you didn't mention it, you didn't see the flowers I left for you at the front desk..." I of course hadn't seen them, thinking it was because I'd been sleeping for the past few hours.
David: As I was planning and preparing, many things worked out very well. When I asked Ann what time I should call, she said 5 without thinking about dinner. This allowed us to go out to dinner together later. The fact that she was taking a nap meant that she would be in her room up to that point, so I didn't have to worry about seeing her beforehand. The weather was beautiful that day (68 and sunny!). The fact that I could borrow my parents car for the trip. The fact that the weekend fell near the 10th of the month was a good excuse to plan the phone date. All of these were ways God was watching out for small details :)
Ann: So then David asked me to go downstairs, get the flowers, and come back upstairs to call him back. I got dressed and went down to pick them up. About 5 steps before acutally seeing David, a friend (that didn't know it was a suprise) said "Someone is here to see you!" as I walked by. That was when I knew for sure that David was here to surprise me. I turned the corner, and there of course was David :) with the flowers at the desk. We hugged and I was very excited, suddenly not tired at all. David asked me if I would like to go for a walk. Since I love going on walks, I said of course! I went upstairs to bring the flowers up, put on tennis shoes, and pull my hair back. I came downstairs and we left Gerig...
David: We left Gerig and I walked us down to Taylor Lake. I was trying to keep the conversation from akward silences, since I knew Ann was probably wondering if this was it. I was still nervous and trying to figure out ohw to say everything I was thinking and feeling and hoping. We sat down on one of the picnic benches by the lake. The sun was setting on the other side of the woods, painting that corner of the sky beautiful red.
Ann: We're having a hard time remembering whwat we talked about for the next half hour. I asked David about the suprise logistics and he asked me more about how the GRE went, but we can't remember what else we talked about because our minds were most certainly elsewhere! I was of course consumed by the question - "Is this it? Is he about to propose?" After about 20 minutes of talking by the lake, David put his hand in left pocket... and... kept it there for about 7 min, (which seems like an eternity) while we kept talking. David then steered the conversation to more of a relational theme. He told me that he was excited about what God had done in each of us through the other and excited about what God can do through us together. He said to me "I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Then he got off of the picnic bench and onto one knee and he asked "Will you be my wife?" after he opened the box with the ring. I don't actually remember noticing the ring box until after the question was asked. Right away, no hesitation, I said "Yes" As for the emotions of it all, I remember intense anticipation suddenly being replaced by a surreal feeling of "this is it! Wow!" to incredible excitement and joy. We hugged lots and lots and lots x10 and talked about our excitement and all of the things and details each of us had been wondering about for so long! It was wonderful to be able to finally talk about all of it! No more big elephant in the room!
David: After talking for a while, we started walking back toward Gerig, but stopped to pray. We sat down on the grass overlooking the lake. It was very neat. Ann teared up a bit and we were both very happy. We thanked God for what he had done. We prayed that God would use this time in our lives to grow us closer to Him and each other. Also, we asked that he would show us how to point others toward him and be an example of a healthy relationship to people that see us. We wanted to have some more alone time, so we went out to dinner at Sunshine Cafe. On the drive down, we mostly just reveled in our joy and exuberance. Ann especially wanted to have time along before breaking the news to the world.
Ann: I remember looking at the ring a lot while we were in the car. I'd never seen it before or really had any idea what it looked like, since it is David's Grandma's engagement ring that I'm wearing now. At Sunshine Cafe, we sat in the front corner booth, since our usual booth in the back corner was full. We split a BLT after a while of trying to focus on the menu - it was incredibly difficult! We talked more, drvoe back to Taylor and went to Brent and Sara's. We shared the news with them, then went to call my folks (though only my Mom was home, we told Dad on Sunday) and then called David's folks. They were all excited for us. What an incredible evening :)

Since then, we've chosen a date: June 17th. We are getting married in Saint Joseph, MI at my home church. Ann got to meet a fair bit of my extended family over Thanksgiving.