Engagement!

As most of you know, since my move up to Seattle last year life has been anything but boring, and there have definitely been some unexpected, yet wonderful surprises. One of the many, and probably the most important being that I am getting married!

Being far away from close friends and family has been a rough adjustment this year, but I feel now more than ever that I am right where the Lord wants me, and even though it has been hard and a crazy transition, there has been so much joy in the growth I have experienced in the past 10 months, as well as gaining a new understanding of God's grace and provision.

J.D. and I both wish that we could be close to all of the people who we love, and who have meant a lot to us over the years, but unfortunately distance prevents us from being able to spend time and connect with all of our loved ones as much as we would like to. With that said we would both like to keep everyone up to date on what is going on in our lives, especially in this exciting season of planning our wedding, but instead of keeping in touch through facebook, and knowing that phone calls and face to face meetings are usually few and far between, we decided to start a blog to hopefully keep everyone in the loop and to feel somewhat connected to the people we want to continue to walk with us on our exciting journey as we start our lives together.

J.D. and I will both be posting updates as much as we can, but as most of you can relate I'm sure, life is crazy and busy, so they may not be entirely consistent. We just wanted to let everyone know you are in our thoughts and prayers and we want you to know how things are going with us as well as what God is doing in our lives as we begin our life together.

So I thought our first post would appropriately start with our engagement story, in case I haven't gotten the opportunity to update anyone yet. After all it is a great story. This version of the story was actually written by J.D., so it is from his point of view...

Over the weekend of the 4^th of July we were in Dallas, Texas staying with some of Hannah’s close family friends, the Rojas’. As most of you know I was planning on proposing to her on the 4th. The day started when I put her favorite flowers and a letter in her room for her to wake up to in the morning. The letter ended with a list of events that were take place that day, such as a nice dinner, getting dessert, and a “special” gift. We had already discussed celebrating our nine-month anniversary on that day, so the goal was to play the evening off as just that. Through the letter I also made slight hints about the ensuing proposal that would take place. The day continued with a failed attempt to attend The Village church on time (we showed up for the last 5 minutes of the service), meeting up with one of Hannah’s close friends Emily, and having a relaxing afternoon eating Columbian food and shooting guns. Hannah and I then got all dressed up, and ready for dinner. Right before we left Ernesto Rojas, the dad of the family whose house we were staying at, asked me if we wanted to use his Mercedes convertible for the evening. For obvious reasons I said yes, so Hannah and I set out all ready for our date.

I had made dinner reservations at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse in Dallas, the restaurant offers a salad bar, complimentary sides, and thirteen different kinds of steaks brought to your table by waiters. Throughout dinner we reminisced about the last nine months of our relationship, and had a good time talking about how God brought us together and the ways in which he has provided in our relationship. It was a lot of fun J. Towards the end of dinner I began to get really serious (maybe a little too serious), and tell Hannah how much she meant to me, and told her that I had something special to give her, but first I had to ask her a question…”Will you wear my ringpop?” I had joked in the past with Hannah about buying her a ringpop instead of a real engagement ring to be able to afford getting engaged sooner. She never thought that was funny…she still doesn’t. But the idea of the day was to build up anticipation for the actual proposal and the whole ringpop idea was not to tease her with a fake proposal, but to build anticipation for when I actually would propose. The problem was that I may have played up the ringpop a little too much and so when I gave it to Hannah, she was a bit crushed. It took some time and a fair amount of schmoozing, but she started to come around and we left Fogo de Chao a little on edge but getting better and headed towards our final destination. (As a disclaimer, though it wasn’t the most enjoyably experience, immediately after the actual proposal Hannah said that she wouldn’t want the evening changed one bit. So don’t be discouraged, it now is one of our favorite stories to tell. And you can ask us about some of the details in person which added a whole lot to the overall entertainment of the ringpop moment.)

Up until this point, I had been feeling nervous about the whole evening and had felt a little stiff. But now after the ringpop incident, I started to loosen up and we both started to get really silly which made the evening take a turn for the better. Upon almost reaching our final destination I began to explain to Hannah that dessert for the evening was a special coffee shop that one of my regular customers back in Seattle who frequents Dallas had told me about. This all was a lie but Hannah was very intrigued and so I continued to tell her about the amazing coffee they served there as well as the really cute mugs they serve their coffee in. All this made Hannah excited because we often head to coffee shops for pre or after date relaxing. What she didn’t know was that I had already contacted the coffee shop and had a beautiful mug engraved with: “Hannah Maria, will you marry me?” sent to them which they would serve Hannah’s coffee in. Hannah’s brother Emilio and Vanessa Rojas, Ernesto’s daughter, were also waiting there on the balcony ready to take pictures of the whole event. We arrived at the coffee shop and after ordering our drinks, Hannah did the unexpected and went to the restroom. Not completely planning on this, I panicked again for a second time but was quickly calmed when Emilio and Vanessa peeked out from the balcony and told me where to sit for the best lighting and angle for the pictures. What seemed like forever was only about two minutes before Hannah came back from the restroom and our coffee drinks were finished. As Hannah got up to grab her coffee, I quickly headed her off and told her that I’ve got it and gave a quick pause to make sure she was going back to sit down. Now if you talk to Hannah about this, she will say I aggressively headed her off and told her to sit down, but I think all the excitement was getting to her and she struggles to really remember the truth J. I then grabbed the coffee drinks, set mine down first and then headed over to her side of the table and set her drink down as I stood and waited. It didn’t take long for Hannah to realize the writing on the mug. I then got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. For those of you really wondering, she did say yes, and we spent the next twenty minutes with her asking me questions and me telling her about everything that had lead up to the evening. We then headed back to the Rojas’ where we celebrated the event with family and friends and partied long into the night. Best night of my life.

So that was almost three weeks ago. Wow how time flies. Now after much prayer and talking with Hannah’s family about just the relativity of life and logistics, we have come to some conclusions about our wedding that we wanted to share.

Because of the season of life we’re in with Hannah still in school and we just leaving, as well as the dynamic of our families and friends living across the country from each other: we decided that we’ll be having a family-only wedding in December. We then will be having two reception/parties, one in the spring here in Texas and another in the summer in the Northwest, where we can then celebrate with all of our friends. It has been a hard last two weeks coming to this conclusion because there are many people we love and care about. But God has given us a great amount of peace in this decision and we are excited to have the opportunity to hopefully really celebrate with our many friends over the next year of the wonderful blessing that Hannah’s and I’s union will be.

So that’s what’s been going with us and with wedding planning. Please continue to pray for us about loving our family and friends well in this time and ultimately loving Christ and seeking his will for us. We’d also just ask for peace and joy in this season and we are excited and anxious about our wedding but know that Christ is here with us today and now and we don’t want to miss out on the joy of being engaged and any other blessings the Lord has for us.