I made a brilliant discovery to nudge myself into a state of contented enjoyment while spending excruciatingly long and tedious amounts of time editing wedding photography.  Audiobooks!  I love audiobooks.  And it turns out, that my photo editing side of the brain is separate from my listening and comprehending side of the brain so I can now multitask.  I work while I enjoy leisure.  Cool huh?

Anyway, I was listening to a sweet proposal story in my latest book yesterday morning when it occurred to me I discovered a gem for my blog.  And now it occurs to me that today is the perfect day to tell this story because it is our 4 year wedding anniversary!  So here, you go, my proposal story.

When He Proposed

Josh had a plan.  But, as many of us know, it is the most important of plans that typically seem to fight back.  In this case, Josh became violently ill so instead of coming up to my parent’s place in Minnesota, where I stayed during the summers, to surprise me with a full day of fun with him he was a puke puddle.  Not just any puke puddle, he was a headache ridden emergency room patient in his mother’s care for the night.  The new hurdle was covering his tracks because he and my parents had arranged the day off of work for me.  So, I awoke to my mom rapping on my door just minutes before my alarm would go off to send me to work.  She declared they got me out of work so the family could all spend the day out on the lake.  I thought this was strange but couldn’t make anything of it.

The next day I sat cozy in my PJs on the deck working on some homework, I was enrolled in three online summer courses. My mom popped her head out with a request to hit up the mailbox.  I said ok then turned back to my work.  She hovered a moment longer so I turned to her again and she said I needed to go now because the mail man comes around 1pm.  I obliged and hopped on my brother’s goofy, recliner bike to head down to the mail box.  What, our driveway is long.

Half way down I spotted Josh.  He had somewhat mastered surprise visits already so I was expecting his appearance to be simply that.  I was ecstatic.

I ditched the bike and ran at him in preparation for a giant hug only to be interrupted by him thrusting a CD out to me.  Still unfazed I took the item and turned it in my hands.  It was The Least of These’s new album.  Meanwhile, he was commenting that I was in the acknowledgements.  I was satisfied with my gift and preferred a hug over searching the acknowledgments at that minute but Josh prompted me to take action on reading them pronto.  I obeyed and when I was halfway through he got down on one knee.  “Oh, boy what am I missing!” I thought.  I skimmed and saw it, “Kaia, my dear, I love you.  Will you marry me?”  I looked down at him and he held a ring.  I said yes and hugged him. He told me the ring was 111 years old and had belonged to his great great grandmother.  It was a thin band covered in fine etching and it fit my ring finger just right.

Then suddenly he broke free of my embrace and walked back to his car mumbling nonsense I couldn’t hear.  He pulled out a garment bag and I heard something about how my mom purchased the dress we spontaneously looked at that summer in Elgin and had fallen in love with.  He assured me he did not see the dress, that the shop had it all hidden in the bag when he went to retrieve it.  Then he told me we were scheduled to wed on October 17, nine weeks from then, in my parents backyard and that he blocked out a week to be with me in Minnesota and to help as needed with the planning.

And that was just a new beginning!  But for the sake of story telling…

THE END