Things are so incredibly sweet right now, we joke that we’re dysfunctional in love. And it’s so easy to say ‘it’s all about us’ or go-with-the-flow enjoying these feelings. Not to say that I’m not enjoying them…but I just want to give thanks right now because love is just being poured out – from God, from Alex, from our parents, from family, from friends.
Father God, You are so good. And I – we, have done absolutely nothing to deserve this. We praise You and worship You for all that You are. For the Giver that You are. Over the weekend, the pastor asked the congregation if we were ready for You. Because as humans, we ask for your presence in difficult times and expect that when You come, You’ll take our struggles away. Are we prepared for what You have to offer when it’s not what we want or expect? Do we trust You? Oh Father, teach us to appreciate all that You give – even if it is times of difficulty. Help us to see that they are all opportunities to trust Your plans instead of our own. When we resist, humble us before Your presence. I know that things will not always be this sweet. But I also know that this relationship and this man is gift from You. I pray that I may be taught how to honour this gift and how to honour You.
Okay, so people have been asking me about getting all the details. I’m a girl so you’re literally getting all the details. This is going to be one heck of a long post – just as a warning!
As mentioned before, all along I thought Alex was going to pop the question in August (the next time we were to see other) because I told him that I wanted blessings from my dad, my Kai Ma and Steph before getting engaged. Since dad’s in Beijing now and Alex was going to HK to visit his newborn niece, we always talked about that being the perfect time to approach dad.
I found out from my preceptor that I could get a few days off right before he left and thought it would be a great way to surprise him for his birthday. (If you’ve been around us enough times you’ll soon realize that we enjoy surprising each other). Any way, I ended up telling him so that he would keep those days free to spend time together.
I admit that I was whiney Friday night after he was done his exams and partying with his classmates cuz I travelled long distances after a nightmarish trip and wanted to see him as soon as possible. He told me he was going to wake me up at 9am on Saturday. I talked him down to 8am.
So here I am all jet-lagged and eager to see my boyfriend; I wake up at 7am and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I stayed in bed like he wanted and just waited. 8 o’clock rolls around and no sign of him…9 o’clock rolls around and still no sign of him. (In my defense, you try waiting for someone you really want to see for 2½ hrs and then tell me how you’d feel.) Finally at 9:30 I got out of bed, jumped in the shower and then pouted to my mom as got ready for the day. He comes strolling in just as I finished blow-drying my hair at about 10:15. Since he was sufficiently apologetic while holding a pink flower and looking very attractive, I just hugged him and forgot everything. He then says he wants to spend some time in the park jus the two of us.
The parents and my Kai Ma had left to take Missy for a walk so I said we should wait until they got back. Then he starts saying how hungry he is and wanting McDonald’s because he didn’t eat breakfast and it’ll be quick. In my mind I start thinking, What is wrong with him today? He’s acting like such a little kid. He parties so hard with his buddies that he couldn’t wake up on time to see me and now he’s throwing a tantrum because he didn’t get breakfast on the way in and wants McDonald’s?!! Whatever. Just get some food into him and maybe he’ll start to be better.
He called his dad to make sure there was enough time for us to leave and we head out. Just as we turn the corner we see all of them walking towards us. Alex doesn’t even slow down his car. I start to get really upset. He hasn’t seen mom or Kai Ma yet. One flew in from Beijing and the other from Vancouver. How rude is it to just drive off without a word of hello?! It’s one thing to be gone before they’re got back but I mean, we saw them and his dad had been trying to get our attention!
Alex knew that I was really upset so he backs up the car to say hello to all of them. Then his dad starts saying a bunch of things in Mandarin that I didn’t understand and Alex got really impatient and short in his responses. At this point I had no clue what has gotten into him. I know that he’s usually not like this and I hated for him to be acting this way in front my mom & Kai Ma. What a first impression! So I tried to invite them to McDonald’s with us. They declined but to make matters even worse, the car stalls as we try to leave again. I could tell Alex was getting really frustrated and so I decided to keep my mouth shut and just get this whole ordeal over with.
Finally the car starts and we head off. He ends up turning into Waterloo park. Okay…he really wants to do this park thing. Let try to enjoy our time together. We walk to the gazebo where we did morning devotions back in 3rd year of undergrad. Great, someone’s got a picnic set up at our bench – we can’t even sit at our old spot. Is nothing going right on this trip?
Then things start to get better – a lot better =) He tells me that the reason he was late was cuz he was busy getting this picnic set up for us and that he didn’t say hi to everyone cuz he had already seen all of them before I got out of bed. Now it’s my turn to feel sufficiently bad. There’s a red & white chequered table cover and a cute little picnic basket beside it. He reaches down and pulls up a glass vase with more of the pretty pink flowers that he gave that morning. Then he opens up the basket and starts pulling out all this delicious looking food. Champagne glasses with juice, plastic plates with croissant, smoked salmon, cheddar cheese, yogurt and fresh fruit. Wow. I was impressed. But still no clue since it’s like him to pull a surprise this romantic.
Not only that, he tells me then pulls out an album that he gave me for our one year. My mom had told me that Kai Ma wanted to see it so we brought it back. It was a set-up. There were some empty spots and pages so he had mom bring it back that he could finish it up. He comes over to sit beside me and begins reading to me the album – his thoughts, the commitment that he made to God and to me when we first began seeing each other, what we had discussed during the Urbana conference. And then a little story of us in that moment; sitting in the gazebo, him reading to me and then getting on his knee…When I got to that part of the story, all I could think was Does this mean what I think this means??? Of course I start crying, especially when he actually gets down on one knee.
Don’t ask me what he said because my mind kept jumping from Is this it…?? to Oh my gosh, it’s actually happening! to I can’t believe I’m crying to Stop crying and focus on what he’s saying back to Oh my gosh, it’s actually happening! There really was no room in my head to process what he said except something along the lines of marrying him and I said yes! So afterwards, we spent some time praying together and then he tells me that the whole entire thing was videotaped. How awesome is that? I had told him once that it would be nice to have a record because I wouldn’t be in the state of mind to recall anything and he remembered! So he had Dan videotaping the entire thing from across the pond and he had his digital camera running the entire time. Of course, there were some glitches – the digicam shut off right before his proposal and he stepped out of frame in Dan’s camera *laughs* But it was just so sweet of him to even plan all of that for me.
So all in all – it was the perfect proposal. I never tried to imagine it but honestly, I couldn’t have wanted it any other way.
