Tah dah da dunt da DA!!!! Yes! It’s true, I am now engaged. :-D Eiko, my fiancée, :-) is such a wonderful woman. For those of you who have met her, I know you agree. For those of you who have yet to meet her, well, a meal and an invitation should do the trick. ;-P lol Sadly, we are living in the Chicago area so it makes it a little harder to get out and see all of you most incredibly wonderful friends of mine. Some of you are saying, pictures, we want pictures. Yes yes, I understand, and soon. (shhhooooossssshhhhh it will be soon!) As advertised though, this post is the telling of how I proposed to Eiko. :-)
When I began working on finding that one special ring, I quickly realized that if I was going to buy her that special ring that she would absolutely love, I needed her input. Not a bad idea to carry with me into marriage I’d say, the getting her input thingy. ;-) So I had to give up on the idea of making it a complete surprise.
Just to give you a little background information, we had long been talking about getting married. We both agreed that there was no point in being in a relationship if you weren’t working towards marriage. I love her. :-) So, I decided that we should start looking for rings. I spent hours and hours on the internet and went to different stores but couldn’t really find that one special ring that we both really loved. We found about a dozen rings that would kind of fit what she really liked, but it wasn’t the one.
One of her co-workers suggested a place that he and his wife have been going to for several years and have been very happy with. The owner custom designs jewelry and has many unique pieces on display. The very first ring that we looked at was the one. I saw it in the case and asked if we could look at it, and immediately Eiko loved it. So we spent the next 1 ½ hours looking at the other rings and talking about details. :-P lol Nothing else really even came close to this ring though and the more we looked at it the more we loved it. I really felt like God had brought us to this place and had the ring just waiting for us. :-)
So now I had the ring that I was going to buy. Now I just had to figure out how to give it to her and still be a bit of a surprise. I’m happy to say, I did just that. :-) I picked the ring up a few days before our anniversary and kept it quiet and hidden. ;-)
For our anniversary we had decided to go to the shores of Lake Michigan and have a picnic. After some searching and conversations with a friend, we settled on a beach. I was really hoping that with it being still a bit early in the year that there wouldn’t be too many people down on the beach.
When we finally got there, the traffic was unbelievable, :-P we quickly set up our picnic blanket, beach chairs, and food. I had hoped to have already eaten and be sitting cozy and close when I gave her card as we watched the sun set which would then lead to the surprise discovery of her ring. Sadly though, the sun was already setting (yes, the lake is to the east, but this beach curls around so that we could actually sit parallel next to the water and watch the sun set through the tall and beautiful buildings) and we had to eat yet.
To make things even more non romantic, another couple had walked up from behind us and stopped about 25 feet in front of us with their dog. There was a good 200 yards of beach behind us and another 300 yards of beach in front of us. But noooooo, they had to stop 25 feet in front of us and play fetch with their big wet black lab in the water throwing the ball towards us! Shhheeeesssssssssssshhhhhhhhh!!!!! (for those of you who struggle with English, a yard is about the same length as a meter ;-P lol)
Of course, as Eiko busily opened the food, I was helping and all the while praying that the couple would move to another spot. The sun was disappearing and with it the light necessary for the reading of the card and notes. Uhg! Well, it got down to the wire and I decided people or no people, I have to do it now. So, I gave Eiko her anniversary card and as I did the wonderful dog ran over to our picnic area. :-P lol The dog was very friendly but this made the other couple decide it was time to move on. Thank you Jesus and thank you nosey little dog. :-)
Eiko then started to read her card. In preparation for this moment (the idea of which I have to say came to me while in prayer thank you Jesus :-) I had bought a little stuffed monkey (Eiko loves monkeys ;-) and tied the ring onto the monkey with a sparkly white ribbon and a red ribbon. I then hid the monkey and ring in my cameral case and under the monkey I had a piece of paper which said, “Will You Marry Me?” :-) After she finished reading her card, I then gave her a little note that I had written, and on it, after some very lovely words, ;-) I asked her if she would open my camera case and give me my camera so that I could take her picture and remember this moment for the rest of our lives. (I had purposely placed the camera beside her and away from me as we were sitting down.) She opened the camera case and much to her surprise, took the monkey and ring out. I asked her on my knee if she would marry me. She said yes (can you believe it!!!) and I put the ring on her finger. We were now engaged.
We spent the remainder of that evening joyfully talking and eating and watched the sun disappear, soon to be replaced by the dozen or so starts that are bright enough to be seen in a Chicago sky. lol It was quite a romantic and memorable evening. I never did take a picture, didn’t need to, it’s burned in my memory forever. :-)
