How he asked me :)

I woke up on Tuesday, August 24, a bit earlier than I would have liked, to my dad patting my shoulder and handing me roses and a handmade card (clearly from Scott), with the nonchalant explanation that “these came at the door for you.” He left with little other explanation to my still-sleepy self.

What was going on? I smelled the roses and opened the card. In Scott’s typical silly fashion, it told me to get up, "get dressed cute (as in really cute--but quickly!)" and then hurry to the next location (the oven in my house). Odd, I know. But that’s my boy. It also had a few lines about how he loved spending time with me and couldn't wait for our next unexpected adventure.

As you may imagine (especially if you're a girl), my mind was running every which way and my heart was racing just as fast to keep up (But Scott knows me, thank goodness, and decided it was okay for me to suspect his plans for a little while and get some of this out of the way). Somehow, though, I managed to get ready, putting on a little makeup and perfume and Scott's favorite dress of mine (he had teased me once, "Hey, if you ever think I might propose, you should wear that dress." Maybe I was being silly, I thought, but I put it on anyway).

My bare feet on the hardwood floor seemed the only sound in the empty house as I walked into the kitchen to the oven (Where were my parents anyway?). In the oven was another card, made to look like a cookie (complete with chips). Before instructing me to sign in to Facebook ("the esteemed social networking site"), this note reminisced about our very first days ever hanging out, baking cookies together, when Scott's brother Mark would "fall asleep" and leave just the two of us to talking ("back when you were just the cute college girl i shamelessly flirted with."). He reminded me of how thankful he was that God put me in his life in the first place.

On Facebook, I found the next note, which again reminisced about our earliest days, and Facebook threads that were hundreds of messages long. He admitted that even sometimes at school (his senior year of high school) he would hurry to the library computers to see if I had written back to him yet that morning (and as it usually was, I likely had) and hurry home from practice wondering what I'd written. He wondered if we ought to thank Facebook even for the first message he sent telling me he liked me (pathetic and poorly written, he thinks it now, but nonetheless part of "our story"). He pointed out the qualities he loved about me then, and his hope to receive many more messages from me in the future.

Amidst my nervousness, I smiled as my heart basked in the quirky beauty that was our God-written story together.

The next note was in my car, "where we first held hands." This one was shaped like a hand, or really two hands that came together at the fold ("This one is weird, Son," Scott's dad had admitted to him teasingly the night before). This card, aside from it's punny note that I was now a palm reader (haha), was a little more bold and to-the-point. "...I hope to get to hold your hand for the rest of my life." My heart beat even faster, and I did my best to breathe as I drove to the next directed location: The swings at Cub Lake (one of my/our favorite places in my hometown) where Scott had asked me to be his girlfriend two years before.

I parked in front of the swings and got out. Glancing over my shoulder, I thought I saw Scott's car pulling out of the somewhat full parking lot. Where could he be going? But there was a little folded paper on the swing, for "Jessay" (Scott's old nickname for me). I opened it with fumbling hands.

This note was shorter. It held a quick one of his "you are:" lists (beautiful, my best friend, my sweetheart, an example of God's love, etc.) and then only a Bible verse--

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

Then a last note:

"Look up."

I looked a little too far up actually (the sky, the top of the swing set...). He said he had almost written "not that far up" but didn't want to ruin the moment. I glanced around uncertainly. Finally he emerged from behind the playground, dressed nicely and holding his Bible. I was relieved a little just to finally see him, as he smiled nervously and gave me a strong hug...and then dropped to one knee, one hand still holding me by the waist. It seemed like a dream (or maybe slow motion) as I heard his words and watched him pull out that little black box from the pocket of his slacks. The ring sparkled brilliantly in the Tehachapi sun. I nodded as I firmly held my hand to his at my waist. "Yes!"

True to form, he asked, "Are you sure?" to which I laughingly responded, "Yes!...Should I be? Did you ask my dad?" He had, and my parents were in fact waiting to make us a celebratory breakfast, before we would head off for a full day at Disneyland.

But for now, we reveled in the joy and emotion of the moment we had both waited for, praising God for his love and ours, and his direction of our lives and our story.

Just a few days before, on our second dating anniversary, Scott had written in the handmade anniversary card his promise that it would be the last dating anniversary card he would write to me. At the time, of course, I hadn't expected that he would come through so quickly! I guess he's a man of his word.

Since I've been gone...

(I know you're probably tempted to hum a Kelly Clarkson song in response to my title. Please resist... You can do it. )

Well, hello, my few-and-far-between (so far), devoted readers!

Sorry that it has been a bit of a break in the updates. I’m sure that you are just dying to hear the rest of the story about “that boy!” I’ve got two excuses for why I haven’t written… one being, of course, the start of my final semester of college (again…so far) and the other perhaps being that on August 24^th, “that boy” asked me to marry him!

I said yes, by the way, and sorry to ruin the ending of a story I haven’t yet told you. I think I better end my short hiatus to give you the story of how it happened.

Well, as God would have it, Scott was able to intern this summer at my home church. A wonderful thing, except that the first part of it was a little bittersweet for both as I was in Albania for six weeks while he lived at my house, with my parents, in my town, working with my church, around my friends and family… and of course, my pictures, if you’ve ever seen my parents’ house. ;) Nonetheless, it was a good time for us both. We had never been apart so long since we started dating almost two years before, so of course we were thrilled and relieved to be together again when I returned and he moved to the house of another friend nearby. It was delightful getting to be so close by, getting those random chances to be together for the average parts of life, just us or with groups (like the youth) or my family. And a wonderful added bonus, many of the important people in my hometown life got to know Scott well, and by the time I returned I think even a few of them had begun to like him even better than me. ;)

Of course that included my parents. I think we were very thankful for the opportunity he had to live with them and for all of them to get to know each other better. Our time apart was a good time as well to continue pondering marriage, if and when God would have it for us. I definitely found myself writing a few journal pages about it while I was gone, in the midst of my free time to think. And I was a little surprised to find that by the time I returned, Scott had already much begun the fearsome task of expressing the notion to our parents. Really, at the end of the day, they were supportive (though no doubt they had or still have a few nerves over their youngest, and still young, children).

Nevertheless my mind was left with a few bits of confusion and doubt. It seemed to me at times an incredible thing that we could even consider marriage in the near future. We are young—and if we admit so, certainly others would too. There were and still are so many questions and things we don’t know. But that’s where we learn to really trust God… not when we have a flawless backup plan. (Not that planning is wrong or bad, mind you, but, as we Americans especially must remind ourselves, not that not having a plan is the worst thing either).

But never mind, it was only August. Though Scott was pretty secretive about his plans, even to my prying as to what groundwork he had laid already (Had Dad approved? Had he looked at or purchased a ring?) I figured we would still have at least a good month or so to figure things out, before he proposed. So on one particular Monday (August 23) after Scott had gone back to Santa Clarita before school started again, I went to bed with a few lingering questions in my mind as to just how far we really were into where we wanted to be with the process of planning to get engaged and married. I knew I had very little reason if any to doubt, but it was still just a little hard to believe we’d ever get there.

Ah, dear reader(s?). J Perhaps by now you know me enough to realize that a flaw in my storytelling is that I’m a bit heavy on the exposition. My apologies. Tomorrow, the real proposal story. ;)