the engagement [part 1]

Truth: I knew we were going to get engaged before it happened.

There is a very simple reason for this: I picked out the ring.

Ok, let me back up.

Tim and I had been dating for eight months and I still had no clue whether or not I should to marry him.  [To those of you in the LDS world, that seems like a fairly long time, but to those of you in the rest of the world this could seem like a very short amount of time.  Let's just say it was a happy medium.]

I prayed about it every day.  Every.Single.Day.  I made lists of pros and cons.  I tried to picture myself getting married [and being married] to him.  I talked to Tim and to 36.25 other people about it endlessly.  Still nothing.  I tried to be patient and just wait until I felt something about the decision.

Finally, after receiving some counsel from my parents and from a very dear friend, I felt I had my answer:

I needed to make the decision for myself.

I knew that marrying Tim was what I wanted.  And so I decided that that was what I was going to do.  And basically told Heavenly Father that he should [most definitely] stop me if I was wrong.

On that very same day, Tim came to pick me up so we could go on a road trip to California.  I opened the door to find him with a bouquet of red and yellow roses in his hands.  [Red and yellow are two of my very favorite colors.  An odd combination?  Possibly.  Still awesome?  Definitely.]  I just remember feeling so happy - not just because of the [very beautiful] flowers - but just to see him.  And hug him.  He helped me grab my bags and we were out the door.

During our drive, I tried to think about how I was going to tell him that I was ready.  We mostly made small talk for about 30 minutes, when I finally said, "So...in addition to seeing the beach, we should maybe do something else while we're in California."  He looked at me inquisitively, and I continued, "Like maybe something big and life-changing that involves a small, very sparkly object."

I had his full attention now.

"I was thinking maybe we could start looking at rings."

As understanding dawned, his face lit up quickly.  A huge smile broke across his face.

"Do you mean it?"

I smiled [possibly bigger than I ever had but probably not as big as I have since].  And then I shyly nodded.

Tim had been ready for this step for a long time.  [A very long time - in LDS months at least.]  He had just [very patiently] been waiting for me to be ready.  The look of pure happiness on his face when he knew I meant it said it all.

The rest of the trip, we talked and giggled and planned and felt utterly and completely happy.

Continue on to Part 2.