the proposal!

Thursday, May 15

I awoke to a text message from Joe, followed by a phone call. He was unusually alert for that time in the morning, sounded really excited to get to work, and was even on his way into the office a half-hour early! I wanted to go back to sleep, after having stayed up until 3ish finishing a paper, but his excitement really awakened me. "You're going on vacation today!" he said. He seemed more thrilled than I! We talked about my schedule for the day, which included swinging by RTS on the way out of town to finish a take-home exam. "How long will that take?" he asked. "I don't know, no more than 2 hours."

So I was out of bed in minutes, tidying up my work inbox for the week and packing my bags. I was expecting to have 2 days to myself at the beach, so I packed like a champ with books, stamping supplies, magazines, etc. (never got used, not a last one of them :) I talked to Joe maybe 2 more times before finally settling down with my take-home exam at RTS. He was persistent in asking "how long will your exam take? When do you think you'll be heading to New Smyrna?" It never got to the point of annoying, but I definitely noticed he asked me so many times! I finished the exam 3 hours later (yikes), did a little jig, and was on the road to my final destination!! I have grown up loving my mom's family's beachhouse in New Smyrna Beach; I've always said that when I cross the bridge to beachside living, my soul knows it's time to rest and I breathe a big sigh of relief. And NSB did not disappoint this day either!

I drove up to the house, texted Joe that I had arrived, grabbed a few things, and went inside. The main living space is on the second floor, so that's where I headed first. Wow! -opened the curtains and the beach looked glorious! The phone rang and it was Joe. "I'm here!" I said excitedly. He said he was so glad I made it and asked how the weather was. I walked out onto the deck overlooking the beach and started telling him how it felt, "it's a little overcast, but feels great! I definitely want to take a walk first before I do anything else!" He responded, "a walk on the beach sounds so nice, I wish I could walk with you." Not thinking much of it, I said, "yes, honey, that does sound wonderful."

"Well....come downstairs!!!" WHAT?! His head popped up from the stairs leading down to the beach.... my eyes bugged out... is that my joe?!?! I could not even begin to grasp the fact that he was standing down there, right in front of me! I kept saying silly things like 'is that really you' and 'what are you doing here' and 'don't you have small group tonight', while he was still coaching me to come downstairs.

(the view from where I was standing on the deck, looking down to the stairs where Joe emerged)

Let me tell you, I RAN downstairs.

He greeted me with a kiss and I knew. This was it!

So we sat down on the stairs leading down to the beach, and while the wind was blowing in our hair and the waves were crashing about 20 feet away, Joe gifted me with a beautiful speech about our relationship and why he loves me. And then he asked me to MARRY him!! I couldn't believe it. I'd been waiting for this moment maybe all of my life, and it turned out to be more perfect than I could ever have imagined.



After several yeses and squeals and kisses, he promptly apologized for all the lying and deception he had authored over the last several months. HA. Poor guy hated living a secret life. But I really had no idea! He confessed to several "remember this? well, I was really doing this." (I thought he had been watching an unusually high volume of TV lately!)


It was absolutely blissful! He presented me with a stunning ring! And we talked for a long time and then he prayed for us. I might have opened one eye once or twice during the prayer to peek at the diamond on my hand (!). Yes, it's really there!



Joe came back on Friday and we had an amazing day just the two of us. Once my parents arrived on Friday night, we talked wedding for 3 1/2 hours straight before we all collapsed in bed. My brother and his family arrived on Saturday and we all had a wonderful weekend celebrating God's goodness to us!

We feel exceedingly blessed and are grateful for your excitement with us!!