It's Happening!!

Enchanted - We met online..(I know, never thought I'd do that). However, I was encouraged by several friends to give it a go, prayed about it and felt God's approval, so I went for it. I have to admit that I was not very invested in the whole process, nor was I expecting anything to come of it. But when John initiated a conversation, his first message was so thoughtful, intentional and encouraging that I was intrigued, while still skeptical. The more we talked the more I was interested and liked him. After facetiming and talking for several weeks, John asked me out and came to Holland for our first date. Being an enneagram 6, I had some of my friends in Holland tracking my location on our first date to make sure I was safe :) (Shout out to Lisa, Emily and Jenna!) Meeting John and spending time with him in person was even better than talking on the phone. He was kind, generous, chivalrous and clearly a man who was pursuing Jesus. As part of our first date we sat at one of my favorite places, Tunnel Park, read the bible and prayed together. After that day, I knew this was something that could be long term. You are in Love - After 3 or 4 dates, John and I began officially dating. A wise mentor in my life, Laurie Petrolje, encouraged me to think about our first few months of dating as building a foundation of friendship. And that's exactly what we did. We read books together and discussed them, he taught me how to play disc golf, we studied the bible and prayed together, we met each other's friends and family, watched sports and learned all about each other. John was patient, kind and encouraging to me and I saw so many Godly qualities in him. We usually only saw each other 1-2 times per week, because we lived in separate cities. But there were a couple of trips that we took that gave us more time together that helped me to realize how I was really feeling. One of those was a trip to North Carolina to visit my parents. It was the most time in a row that we had ever spent together. My parents were generous and welcoming hosts and we had so much fun! While heading home and going our separate ways, I remember wishing he was still with me. It was shortly after that when I knew I loved him and told him. Fortunately for me, he felt the same way. From there, our love grew and we began to talk more and more about the future and where God was leading us. Today Was a Fairytale - After passing the one year mark of dating, I thought a proposal could be coming, but I had no idea when. One of my best friends Jess, had arranged a girls night for dinner and one last summer sunset. So on Friday Sept. 29th, Jess, Maria and I went out for dinner, and I was not suspecting that anything was out of the ordinary. After dinner we went to go see the sunset at Tunnel Park. When John stepped out at the end of the tunnel, I was genuinely shocked. I was so caught off guard that the first words out of my mouth were, "shut up"! (Major Princess Diaries moment) I then turned and looked to see Jess and Maria backing out of the tunnel and I knew something was up. I looked at John and said, "Something's Happening"! He then asked me to join him for a walk on the beach so we walked down to the water and there he asked me to marry him. I of course said yes! After that, I was overjoyed to see my best friend Nicole coming down the dune with Jess and Maria, to celebrate with us! Nicole had driven all the way up from Illinois to be there and surprise me! We took pictures, laughed, got ice cream, and I got to hear all of their stories about planning the surprise. I was touched to hear about how they had planned out every detail of the evening for weeks and how they had all worked together to pull it off. Truly one of my favorite days ever, and something that I couldn't have planned any better.

I started a conversation with Emily seeing that we both had a desire for a relationship built on the foundation of Christ and very soon realized what a wonderful, kind, genuine, and thoughtful woman she is who truly pursues Jesus. I enjoyed our conversations getting to know each other and learning how much we had in common. After we had the opportunity to Facetime, I prayed we would have the chance to meet in person. That prayer was answered as we had our first date in Holland and she showed me around town. Some rain hit and we went bowling while waiting for it to clear. I appreciated how she did not want me to let her win; and it took some convincing for her to realize that she legitimately won our 2nd game! We read the Bible and prayed at the Tunnel Park overlook together while doing a devotional. After such a wonderful first date I prayed it would not be the last. During the course of our first few dates Emily and I began reading a book about dating together. I was so encouraged by her enthusiasm to read this together and intentionally date in a way that would honor the Lord. We came to a chapter in the book that led us to realize it was time to start officially dating. As I spent more time with Emily, learned what she was passionate about, and we had the chance to meet each others' friends and family, I realized how special she is and saw so many wonderful qualities in her. She truly brightens the lives of everyone she knows and loves to show hospitality. She has so many gifts and talents yet demonstrates humility in how she lovingly shares them with others. I learned of her love for the beach while she learned to share my enjoyment of disc golf. We discovered shared interests of being outdoors, board games, books, spending time with both her friends and mine, and so many more. Emily loves music, and I think my first clue that I loved her was all the Taylor Swift albums I downloaded onto my phone so that she would have music she liked to listen to when we hit a bad service area on a road trip. She so thoughtfully planned an amazing day at Top Golf with my friends for my birthday in December and I surprised her at Christmas with tickets for us to go see Purdue play at Mackey Arena. I knew I was in love with Emily but it turned out that soon after we got back from an amazing trip to North Carolina to visit her parents she got to say it first! I waited about a half-second (if that long) to tell her that I loved her too. When I knew it was time to ask Emily to marry me, I wanted to make it a special and memorable day for her; and I wanted it to be a big surprise! I knew that if her friends could be involved that it would be even more special for her. So in September I conspired to reach out to Nicole and Jess for help in planning a memorable proposal. They were about to spend a girls weekend with Emily and were so thrilled to help that they asked not to know any details until after the weekend was over for fear they would not be able to contain the excitement! I was already planning to be over in Holland with Emily the last weekend of the month. What Emily didn't need to know, however, was that I had Friday off as well and had procured a place to stay for Friday and not just Saturday night. Thankfully her friends were able to be in Holland that Friday as well. Jess arranged a girl's night out for dinner and to see a last summer sunset at Tunnel Park with Emily and their friend Maria. When Maria learned what was going to happen at the beach she enthusiastically joined in on the plan and helped make sure Emily never saw it coming! I will never forget "shut up!" quickly followed by "something's happening!" as Emily saw me emerge from the tunnel. I asked her to take a walk down the beach with me where I asked her to marry me by the water. Nicole, Jess, and Maria then emerged from the dune and we all took pictures and celebrated after with some Captain Sundae! Success!!!