September 21, 2011

Put a ring on it

It was like any other day. I was in town for my spring break, and we decided to head over to the fiance's parents' house for the weekend to see them before I had to leave. We got dressed to go to the beach and had a fabulous BBQ chicken salad for lunch.

We took this photo on the beach.
Shortly after, the fiance suggested we go home.
I was hot. He was anxious.

We got back to the house, and everyone headed outside. I was watching the family dog jump through a hoop.  It was cute. The fiance got up to try, and the dog just sat there. That was not so cute.

Then the fiance got down on his knees to play with the dog and started to act concerned that the dog had something in her mouth. Some people remember "Will you marry me" on their proposal day. I remember: "Eww, come look at what's in the dog's mouth!"

Before I knew it, I was being persuaded by the fiance's entire family to go over to him to see what was going on. I was so out of it. "What a strange request," I thought, "This better be worth seeing."

It was worth seeing.

As you can see from my finger wagging, the first thing I thought of was "whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat is going onnnnnnnnnnnn" and "Is this a joke?!?!?!?! Because if it is, it's not funny!!!!!"

Thankfully the Lord has given me a very patient man and he proceeded to assure me that this was real, that his love for me is real, and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Could it get any better??

It got better.

His family was in on the whole thing, and so was mine (side story: my mom knew this was happening but forgot what day it would happen, so she would send me texts periodically asking me if anything "exciting" happened...). The proposal was recorded on a camera, and pictures were taken while I stood there in disbelief. Then as if that wasn't enough attention, they set up a private dinner for two overlooking the river right as the sun was setting. It was their first act of service for me, and I could not felt more loved and humbled to be accepted into such a wonderful family.

Of course our story would not be complete without something going wrong. In his secretiveness, the fiance asked my mom to snoop around my room for a ring size. Somehow she discovered/made up this random number, like 7/8ths and took herself and that made-up number to a jeweler...who probably looked at her strange and then somehow determined that I was a size smaller than I actually am.

The next day, we went to a random, sketchy "jeweler's bench" the next day to get the ring re-sized (I really wish I had a picture of this place; it was described to us as "that place across from the children's play area" and was located in an area where you would usually find an Auntie Anne's Pretzels. Real classy establishment). It was probably the hardest and most nerve-wracking decision we've made so far. I thought the ring was going to be lost/stolen forever. But then we came back, and the ring looked more beautiful than I remembered it from the day before.

He liked it so he put a ring on it!

Months later, I still find myself staring at my ring. I look back at these pictures and I am reminded that there is one man in particular who loves me for who I am, as close to unconditional as he can get. I cannot wait to grow old and wrinkly with him!

1 comment:

  1. Jocelyn, I'm so happy for you guys! I remember when I first got engaged and couldn't stop looking at my ring...and it's been almost five years since I got the ring and I STILL can't stop looking at it!

    ReplyDelete