It was the first Friday of the school year, and I did not have school. Jose and I started our day going out to brunch before he dropped me off at my nail appointment. When he picked me up, we wanted to go down by the Grand River to look at some cool exhibits. I blanked on what park it was, so we ended up going to Riverside Park. We walked around for a bit, before I saw an empty section with a bench. I suggested that we go sit down, so we did. There was some talking, some silence, all just loving the peace and being with each other. Jose got up to go look at the river when I suddenly heard two little voices yelling, "Hello! What is your name?!" I turn and look, and see two adorable, but completely random children running up to me. Once they reached me, they immediately sat down on the bench on either side of me. As they were chatting away with me, two grandmas came up (holding bud light and cigarettes) and one of them said how cute that was and proceeded to take a picture of me sitting on the bench with these kids. After they left, I went to join Jose at the river, who was laughing at what happened. After a few minutes, I suggested we take a picture, thinking of a selfie. Jose suddenly starts to try to set his phone up on the base of a tree. I ask what he is doing and suggest a selfie, when he sees the grandmas and children start to come back our way. He goes to ask them to take a picture while the two kids come up running yelling, "I WANT A HUG!" Next thing I know, Jose is grabbing me for the picture, the kids are distracted, Jose points at the sky behind me, and when I turned around again, he was down on one knee proposing. And obviously, I said yes.

This was attempt number two at proposing to Lauren because somehow, she kept figuring it out every time… until today. Finally, she had no idea what was coming! I had wanted to propose somewhere cute and meaningful, but honestly, I just decided to go with the flow and it ended up working perfectly in my favor. What makes this story even more special is how it ties back to how we first met. If you don’t know, Lauren and I met doing what we both love most, working with kids. Okay, back to the story. Lauren and I planned a little day date to check out some early ArtPrize exhibits, but she accidentally took us to the wrong spot, and we ended up at a park instead. As I was trying to figure out where to propose, two little kids ran up to Lauren, asking her name and chatting with her. Two sweet grandmas nearby snapped a picture of the moment before I could even ask for them to record they were off again. I still hadn’t found the spot. Eventually, I found a nice spot by the water and asked Lauren to take a picture with me. As I was setting up my phone, those same kids and grandmas started walking back our way. That’s when I asked one of the grandmas if she could record something for me… because I was about to propose. So that’s my POV, Now go read Lauren’s side of the story if you haven’t already! I can’t wait to celebrate this moment with all of you.