Will you marry me?

Today marks the three-year anniversary of the day Brian proposed. The whole story of the week leading up to the proposal is too long for this post, just know it was a crazy, emotional week, and on Wednesday, neither of us expected to be engaged by Saturday. That said, Brian did a great job of making the day special and totally surprising me. :)

We started our evening by going to the movies to see Cinderella Man, which was actually the first time we had gone to the theater together. Then we had dinner at Cafe Eccell. His inability to eat much at dinner was in fact due to nerves, but I thought it was a result of the malaria pills he was taking in preparation for his trip to India. Convenient.

After dinner, we went to Bee Creek Park to take a walk. When we got to the first split in the path, I noticed a small white flower growing in the middle of one of the branches. I may have commented on it, but didn't really think much, other than that was kind of a weird place for a single flower to be growing. At the second branch (and second flower) instead of becoming curious, I thought I saw the reason for the lone flower. Up ahead, I could barely see white growing around the base of a large tree. In my head, I just thought that somehow seeds had migrated and this single flower was part of the larger group that had kind of "wandered away."

When we got up to the tree, Brian stopped and gave me a hug. He started talking to me and then before I registered the tone of what he was saying, he was down on one knee in front of me. It was one of the sweetest moments of my life. Then I found out that all the flowers I had seen - those in the path and in a circle around the tree - had been planted by Brian that morning, while I thought he was packing and having lunch with his sister. Crazy boy!

Here we are just after the fact. If I look a big more tired and weepy than excited, I had in fact spent part of the afternoon crying - Brian would leave the next day for a 6-week mission trip to India, and I was not looking forward to it.


The tree was an old, dead skeleton, basically. On a previous walk, I had commented on how cool and interesting I thought it was, and Brian remembered. Unfortunately, this spot has been almost destroyed due to the "improvements" in that area. Now there is a large drainage ditch beyond our cool dead tree instead of more trees.


And here's Brian, looking handsome, young and very pleased with himself. ;)


I love you, Brian. Thanks for making that day such a special memory!