Getting Emmarried!

NATALIE: I spent the last half of 2020 and the beginning half of 2021 (while single) to pray for my future husband, since it seemed to me a very slim chance to find him without God's guidance. After getting tired of my complaining, my mom finally pursuaded me to give Catholicmatch.com a chance. It wasn't long at all until Jacob caught my eye, and though I never officially "liked" his profile, I knew I liked him better than any other guy that I had seen on there. We chatted for a few days until I gave him my number. Then, by happenstance, he told me one Saturday that he was going to be at the church I attended the next day, so we planned a meeting afterwards. As soon as we met, we knew something was different. I was drawn to his eyes and smile and overall demeanor, and he felt the need to keep his eyes away from me to not fall entirely head over heels for me--which, back then I was not aware of, but thought it was cute the way he was staring off like a pirate on a ship looking to the horizon. After the initial meeting, and the promise of a date, he texted his mom that he'd marry me someday, and here we are.

Jacob and I were in Texas, visiting his Mom and friend(Michelle) with his Grandma for the weekend before Thanksgiving. We had decided to go exploring that day, so we eventually found a park to walk around and talk a bit. Now, we had talked about marriage and our future for a few months, mostly hypothetically, sometimes jokingly hypothetical (but we both knew we were being serious), sometimes realistically. I knew he had already asked my parents for my hand in marriage. (Sorry Mom, but you need to be less obvious than "Phil and I need to steal Jacob for a second"). I knew he was talking to my sister, her boyfriend (Noah), and probably my mom and his mom about rings. (Jacob asked me random questions about it too, and made jokes about it "so you want a really expensive diamond ring with all sorts of diamonds around it, right?") To top it off, I had an inkling that he'd already gotten the ring (he'd told me excitedly one day that he'd gotten something he wasn't expecting to get so soon, and several of our video chats he'd have to hide something from me). Even the night before we left for the trip, I had a dream about the ring. So, it was on my mind quite a bit. I thought it was entirely possible for him to have brought it along on the trip, but I wasn't sure whether he'd brought it with him to the park. We had been walking for a while, and he pointed out some deer in the woods (this is an important detail, I promise.) Then, we came to a clearing in the woods with trees around us. We were talking and hugging for a while and I said in jest, "I wonder if you brought the ring." Which he replied, deviously, "you'd see a box imprint somewhere in my clothes, wouldn't you?" so I believed him, because I didn't see a box anywhere. After a second, he said, "Oh, look, there's another deer back there in the woods!" pointing behind me. Like a fool, I turned and looked, "I don't see anything." He kept up the charade, "just there in the light between the trees."

Then, it struck me. Without turning back around, I knew he was kneeling down. I took a deep breath and looked. There he was, kneeling, holding a ring that looked exactly like the one in my dream. He asked simply, "Will you marry me?" After what must have been an agonizing 5 minutes of shock and speechlessness, I said, "absolutely." He put the ring on my finger, we embraced for a while, and then I looked at him. "Well now I have a very important question for you?" "Will you Emmary me?" And there, my friends, was the greatest pun I've ever planned in my life.