Part III-- The Proposal

It was a long time comin'. Poor Mike had to put up with me questioning when the ring was coming for months. So when the fall came around we had both graduated with our undergrad and had just started our grad programs. We knew that a marriage proposal was imminent and felt God preparing our hearts for a life spent together. We also knew we wanted to wait until we were finished with grad school (or at least almost finished) for a wedding.

The weekend before my birthday Mike surprised me and told me to pack for the weekend. And I knew what was comin' and was soooo excited! We ended up driving to Tampa where he took me out on a hot date for dinner & we stayed overnight. I was promptly woken up early for an adventure:

A balloon ride! I thought, "SWEET! Getting proposed to while the sun is coming up on a balloon is AWESOME!"

It was amazing! But there was no proposal, which confused me. 

We spent the rest of the day in Clearwater at the beach (and I thought, okay, maybe proposed to on the beach is cool, too...) but no ring.

On the way home I was pretty disappointed. I thought FOR SURE he was going to propose while we were down there and honestly spent a little time sulking in the car. Then I realized how much of an idiot I was being, that he had planned this wonderfully amazing trip and I need to not be so lame by being disappointed. I remember praying for God to calm my heart and for me to be satisfied with Him and His perfect timing, not my own. 

We pulled into Gainesville & were on our way back to my house when Mike randomly turned down a street that leads on campus. I looked at him, confused, then instantly knew what was going on. He pulled into the parking lot for the chapel that's on the lake and got out of the car. If you know what chapel I'm talking about, you know that just the way it looks screams 'romantic,' but it also happened to be the place where we first dropped the L bomb to each other in our sophomore year. I saw Annie and Enrique sprint towards the bushes as I followed him to where a picnic with fondue & wine was set up.

I was all smiles as we sat and nervously nibbled on the picnic foods he had set up; he looked at me and said, "Can we stand up?" 

So we did stand up. And then he got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him.

And I said yes of course.