We have been prayerfully pursuing marriage for awhile and doing pre-engagement counseling for the last four months. Doing that counseling before engagement was one of the best pieces of advice we received, and we highly recommend it! It is well worth the investment of time & money!
June has been a busy month for both of us for work. I traveled to Atlanta for a week for a conference, and Steven had his annual two week training with the Army at Fort Hood. Needless to say, we would not get to see each other much in the month of June. We had been talking about engagement and had planned to make it official before being apart for three weeks.
So, the weekend before I left for Atlanta, we planned to spend some quality time together. Friday night, we had a romantic date and went to the drive-in movies in Gatesville. We popped popcorn and brought apples and chocolate - everything you need to enjoy a drive-in. The weather was beautiful and was topped off with a strawberry moon. As we drove through the country, we passed field after field of rows of corn, which reminded Steven of his home in Indiana, and soon our conversations were filled with talk of our grandmothers, our career goals and our adventures together. It was a perfect evening, perfect conversation, perfect outing, perfect time just being together. (And the movie was good too!) It was one of many favorite adventures with him.
I may have teased him at one point that he was running out of time before I left. He ignored me. Later, he was sitting on the couch and asked if I was really ready for this. I said yes, and then he said, okay, let's pray then. And we both got on our knees in the floor of my apartment and poured out our hearts to God. We prayed for our marriage and our home, for faithfulness to God and to each other all the days of our lives. It was one of the most special and most sacred moments of my life. Tears ran down my cheek. My heart was so full, hearing again Steven's heart toward God and his love for me. That's one of the things I love most about him, and that moment so captured both of those so well, hearing him pray about being a godly husband and committing our marriage over to Christ again.
I can think of no better way for us to get engaged, and that's only part of the story. He didn't have the ring with him. We were packing and doing other things at my place, and it was back at his place. So we got up from this incredible time of prayer and went back to our to-do list. We proceeded to run errands and get ready for my trip. Alas, though, we did end back up at his place. And he got down on one knee and turned the most ordinary of moments into one of the most special. And of course, I said yes!
About fifteen minutes later we left for our Sunday school class party, and we got to celebrate with our community of friends that have been praying for us and walking with us throughout our relationship. And early Sunday morning, I got on a plane to Atlanta. Three weeks and a new chapter began.
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