"And the two shall be one"

"Every love story is beautiful, but ours is my favorite." Wow, so cliche. But it's true. Our story is my favorite. Not because it's our story, but because it's God's story, one of grace and transformation. One where a perfect God takes two very imperfect people and molds them to perfectly compliment one another, ultimately drawing them closer to Himself. It's a story of a loving Father who uses two broken vessels to reveal His remarkable love, forgiveness, faithfulness, joy, peace, and grace. I could fill a book (maybe many books) with details of the journey of our relationship. However, the most exciting part of our story would not be how we met, or the awkward homecoming dance, or our first "date" on top of a parking deck. It wouldn't be the pickle-breath kisses, or the Broadway plays, or the finger painting on Valentine's Day. It wouldn't be the moment Nathan first whispered the words "I love you" nor a month later when Sara finally uttered them back. It wouldn't be our famous Greek-chicken salads, Babalou's guacamole, beautiful hikes, or watching Heartland. The highlight of our story wouldn't be wine-tasting in Mendoza, deep-sea fishing in Alaska, or our various other adventures around the world. It wouldn't be our success or failures, our laughter or tears. All of those things are part of our story - of who we are as a couple. But what would fill the pages of our love story - what makes it my favorite - is the faithfulness and goodness of our gracious Heavenly Father. It's the countless answered prayers, the ways He continues to grow and transform us. It's the opportunities and places to which He's guided us, how He's prepared us to be husband and wife. It's our hope of all the new adventures He has in store for us. Our love story is beautiful, not because of us, but because it's just one small piece of a great story - "The Great Story which no one on earth has read; which goes on for ever; in which every chapter is better than the one before." (C.S. Lewis)

Sara is as perceptive as they come, and so you can imagine the difficulty in trying to keep anything secret from her! I began planning the proposal some 3 months in advance. It helped that Sara was busy working away in Birmingham. All while I was schmoozing up to her family in Albany, of course. Little did Sara know (I think..) that I too was hard at work -- spending many a sleepless night tossing and turning, praying, and playing out each possible situation in my head. It was never a matter of perfection for me, but I wanted to be absolutely sure that it was genuine. I decided right from the beginning that the most important aspect of this proposal would be the families involved. And so after asking Sara's parents permission, Dad first, then Mom (who exclaimed after I asked her, "it already feels like you're part of the family!"), I worked to get as many family members as I could on board with my plans. I can't tell you how many scenarios I planned out, but God finally led me to the right one. *cue inspirational/uplifting music* I would ask her on Sunset Rock, Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, the day after Christmas. We spent the day in the city, and I was a ball of nervous energy. She definitely noticed. As we were driving home, I pulled off on the ramp headed up Lookout Mountain. We parked at the top of the trail and I reached back into the car to grab a red beanie out of the center console. The ring was inside. By that time she knew what was happening. On the walk down we stopped to pray, with shaky hands and nervously beating hearts. As we reached the edge of Sunset Rock, I began to sing (or croak) "The Next Ten Minutes," the proposal song from our favorite musical. I didn't get through most of it. But kneeling down I did manage to ask, "Sara Grace Albano, will you marry me?" I'm guessing she said yes ;) We returned to my family's home, which was packed out with all our family and friends, and the secrets ended with a sweet and joyous family celebration.