Josh and Megan met many years ago as kids at Calvary Episcopal Church in Richmond. Josh was the boastful, outlandish kid and Megan, on the other hand, was the shy but intimidating girl that would rarely talk to anyone but her three best friends Morgan, Anna, and Katie. One weekend there was a lock-in at Calvary for the youth group. They were playing a game called sardines (a backwards hide & seek; more of a seek and then hide). Josh found Megan hiding in the Acolyte closet and had to hide with her in a very tight space so that no one else would find them. Don't worry, Megan was tucked away in a drawer and Josh was hidden among the Acolyte robes. Eventually, all but one of the youth group members were piled into the Acolyte room hiding (hence the name Sardines). That was the beginning of Josh and Megan's story. Life went on and they didn't talk for nearly a decade. That was, until, a Rosalums work weekend in March of 2019. At one point during the weekend all of the volunteers were writing letters to staffers, which would be given out to help support them throughout the summer. Josh looked around the room to find a place to sit down and write, and being the social butterfly that he is, his eyes fell upon Megan. There she was, sitting alone wearing a "Dog Mom" hat writing cards diligently. She still seemed just as intimidating as before, but Josh had become braver. After an hour of card writing, bad jokes, and awkward remembrance, the two had become entangled in something that, unbeknownst to them, would last a lifetime. After just 6 months of dating, the two had decided to take a big step and rent a house together. There, they would weather a pandemic, major flood events, and amidst all that, begin to build their family (of dogs - 3 of them). It became clear what needed to come next. To be continued in "The Proposal".

How many times have you said goodbye to someone, without ever thinking about when you might see them again? It could have been when you said goodbye to all your friends and teachers when you graduated grade school, or to your neighbors when you moved out of town, or even to some of your cousins who live halfway across the country. We’ve all done it before, that's just how life works sometimes. Other times life has a funny way of readjusting its course in the most unexpected ways. This is what it has felt like falling in love with an old acquaintance whom I never would’ve imagined to be my future wife. A year and half into our relationship I had begun to see how clear it was to me that I could never let her slip through my fingers. I began planning a trip to Europe in November of 2020, with the hopes that the British Isles would have opened its borders for Summer of 2021. I was planning on signing us up for a bus tour of all of the cliffs across Ireland and had even found a photographer I could hire to hide away near one of the cliffs to snag candids of the proposal. Alas, COVID remained unrelenting and the timeline for open international travel kept getting pushed further and further back. Having already designed the ring at a local mom & pop shop jeweler, the new token of love everlasting was burning a hole in my pocket. I had hidden the ring all over the house, and yet Megan kept finding ways to almost stumble upon it. It felt as if I were withholding pertinent information from her, and I did not like that feeling one bit. So, rather than postpone the engagement, I set my sights on proposing somewhere that was special to us, somewhere a little more local than an Irish cliff side.

Camp Allen just so happened to be having a Centennial celebration on May 1st, which gave me 2 weeks to plan with family and friends so that we could all be together to celebrate. After scrambling to find a place for everyone to stay, talking to numerous photographers, and putting plans in place for everyone to be ready to surprise her at the end of the day, nature had something to say. In the most Texas Spring weather fashioned way possible, it began pouring rain a few days before the event. And it kept raining. And kept raining. All the way up until the day before when they decided to cancel the event due to road flooding. There I was. The day before the planned proposal, back to square one. I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to propose on May 1st, no matter what got in my way. I would not stand for another day where Megan did not know that I was sure, another day without telling her that I couldn’t envision a life without her in it, another day I would wait to tell her that I loved her and wanted to be Husband & Wife. I’d be damned if I was going to wait any longer. Thanks to a fantastic last minute brainstorming group chat with all of the important women in Megan’s life, I was able to pull plans together to make it happen…

It all began as most days in the Grotte/Medlin household begin, with a hurtling blue heeler named Pearl jumping onto the bed to let us know the sun had risen and we should too. The rains from the days before had finally stopped, and a fleck of sun had started to shine through the overcast skies. Not having slept well due to anxious restlessness due to the uncertainty of the proposal (I was pretty certain, but you can never be 100% sure), I got up and let the dogs out and began to cook breakfast. Megan, still unknowing of the plans for the day ahead, continued to snooze. That is until I awoke her with a trey in hand full of fruit, tea, juice, pancakes and whipped cream. It was at that moment Megan knew something was up. Being the sly guy that I am, I quickly redirected her suspicion. May 2nd (the next day) was my parents 34th wedding anniversary, and as she asked why I was buttering her up, I simply told her I wanted her help cleaning the house so I could invite my family over to celebrate my parents anniversary. SHE TOOK THE BAIT! After a comfortable breakfast in bed, we started cleaning the house, vacuuming, organizing, taking out the trash (Pearl), etc. Little did she know that she was actually helping me clean the house for the engagement party that was to come that evening.

Since we were supposed to be going to Camp Allen, but couldn’t because of the flooding, I asked her if we could get dressed up and have a nice lunch in Sugar Land Town Square instead. SHE TOOK THE BAIT AGAIN! AHA! So we set off to have a nice lunch in the square just the two of us. We had not been gone 5 minutes and my sister, Alex, had already swung in and started decorating our house for the celebration. This made things a little complicated since we had forgotten face masks and Megan was suggesting we just turn around and get some since we don’t live far from the square. I once again deflected and suggested I just pop into a nearby storefront and buy a pack. After having secured the masks and avoiding another catastrophe, we began walking around Town Square to find a place to eat. Although, for some reason, everywhere was packed! I mean like 2 hour waits packed. Benihana’s was packed, Perry’s was closed, P.F. Changs had a wait, and it began to occur to me that I should have made a reservation somewhere. Luckily, Megan was in the mood for cheesecake (when is she not?), so we strolled on over to the edge of the square and sat down for a fantastic lunch. Italian cuisine, with cheesecake to top in an ancient-Egyptian-meets-Vegas-Strip style restaurant, could it get any more American? As we were getting closer to asking for the check I started to become a ball of nerves, nervous as could be about everything working out the way I wanted it to. So much so, that Megan asked me what was wrong and why I was seemingly writhing in my seat. I quickly deflected again saying that I had not slept well the night before and my back was bothering me (I may not be old, but my back is at least 45).

After paying the bill and walking to the door, we notice that another downpour has begun. The bright sunny day that we had left when we walked into the Cheesecake Factory, had spiraled into another heavy rainstorm, and after a few seconds of pondering I look at Megan, with her hand in mine, and ask her to take a stroll through the rain with me. Courageously, she said yes. Hopefully, she would say yes again by the end of the walk. Rather than walk straight towards our car, I ask her if we can walk through the plaza in the rain before we retire for the day. She ever so graciously appeases me and doubles the length of our walk to the car in the rain. As we approached the square itself, we halt in the last bit of cover as if to prepare ourselves for the open downpour ahead of us. I looked over to Megan and asked her “Are you ready?”, and her response was a tentative “Sure.” As we stepped into the square I began looking for my friends who were hiding behind the columns in front of City Hall, ready to take some candid photos, but I couldn't see them because they were too stealthy. Unsure of if the moment would get captured in time by pictures, drenched in rain, nerves bundled up, I came to a stop in the middle of the square with Megan’s hand in mine. I told her I needed to tie my shoe, and as I kneeled down she asked me if I was shaking from the cold. It was at that moment that all of the pieces finally fell into place for Megan.

I looked up at Megan with a ring box in hand and proclaimed “I don’t want to spend another day of my life without you by my side. I don’t know where I would be without you, and I don’t want to ever have to find out. Megan Bianica Medlin, will you marry me?” “YES!” she shouted as she jumped into my arms almost knocking me over. It’s almost as if a dam broke at that moment. The rain began to relent, my two friends who had been so stealthily hiding were running up behind her taking videos and photos, a crowd of strangers started cheering from a distance (which startled everyone, but was a welcomed surprise), and all I could see through Megan’s rain stained glasses were squinty eyes and the biggest smile ever. After much jubilation in the square, we bid my friends ado (or so Megan thought) and headed home. Which, to Megan’s surprise, is where we found our family and friends waiting to celebrate our new chapter in life together.