The Brothers' Mama: How We Got Engaged

Last week I shared how Brian and I met and out of all my blog posts that was the most read post to date. If you missed it, you can read about it here. I was floored with how interested people were in how my honey and I met and where we went for our first date. I will say that I feel like I have a love story I could tell time and time again and still gush over. I simply love the chapters in my life that include Brian. Today I am sharing how we got engaged.

Brian and I had been dating about 6.5 months before we left college for summer break. By early May the dorms were empty and the campus was cleared. Brian went home to southern Washington and I spent a lot of my summer with my grandparents in the San Juan Islands that summer as well as some time working in my hometown. The time away gave us lots of chances to talk on the phone but as anyone knows time away can make you grow distant. We both tried to visit when we could on weekends or if work permitted we fit in an extended weekend. After 6 weeks apart I was starting to feel a strain in our relationship and it scared me to think of loosing someone that I had grown so close to.

Brian was my first date, boyfriend, and relationship but I knew he was the one for me. We had already talked about marriage and both felt we were on the same page. We knew after about 5 months of dating that we were stronger together than apart. Our weaknesses were strengthened by the other. We both had prayed and felt a peace from God that this was His plan for our lives and that we could do more for His eternal kingdom together than apart. Even after talks and promises I started to doubt our relationship slightly because of the sometimes dead conversations that were leading up to a visit that I had planned. I started to fear that my first breakup was on the horizon and spent many nights praying for God to guide us and to prepare my heart.

Brian had invited me to come and have dinner at a restaurant where his cousin was the chef. Apparently, it was a beautiful restaurant on the Colombian river and the seafood was amazing. I planned the visit and dinner for the 1st of July and drove down to see Brian. I stayed with his parents and Brian was living with his best friend Chris that summer in a home close by. I remember I pulled up into the driveway of his parent's home and Brian walked out to greet me with a very cool, distant, and reversed hug. I remembered my hear dropping into my stomach. I was utterly convinced that Brian was ending our relationship that night at dinner and I did all I could to put a smile on my face. That afternoon we chatted and walked around but something was not the same and I felt it.

I wore a black lace dress that my grandmother had gotten for me for Christmas that year. It had a A line skirt and thin straps. I curled my hair and put on some black high heals and went down to meet Brian. Just before we left, Brian told me he had invited his Aunt and her friend Kathy to join us for dinner. I was a little surprised that they were joining us for a nice dinner date but I found hope in the fact that at least during the meal there would be no talk of ending our relationship.

The four of us drove to the restaurant and were seated at a beautiful table overlooking the river. Brian's cousin Jer came out and brought us some appetizers and talked us through the menu a bit. I settled on some sweet iced tea and a plank roasted king salmon filet with a cheery compote. Dinner was perfect and I was so full that when the offer of dessert came out I politely declined. I was stuffed.

Jer insisted I try some desserts and, being a lady, I could not protest a second time. Jer said he would bring out a small assortment for us to try so I did not need to pick anything out. In a moment a covered tray was brought out and placed directly in front of me and I knew right then that there was a ring hidden on that plate. All of a sudden the strange behavior made sense, the distance in talking about my senior year of college and the hesitation in Brian telling me his plans about life after college started to become clear. I suddenly saw why his Aunt had come because she already had a camera in hand to take pictures of the beautiful diamond ring that the waitress was unveiling. I was floored because our original plan of becoming engaged in December had been moved up and here I was getting proposed to.

Brian smiled at me for a long time as I clasped my hand over my mouth. I remember he was so happy he did not even ask me to marry him. He knew I was saying yes from the smile on my face but I waited until he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him which he did. I said yes slipped that ring on my finger with such joy. I was getting to marry Brian and I was over the moon!