This is real life! Part #1: The Proposal

Blessed, shocked, ecstatic, excited, giddy, thrilled, tearful, joyful, humbled, and incredibly happy. All of those words combined do not truly begin to explain my feelings the very moment I heard the words "will you marry me?" come out of Adam's mouth the night we got engaged!

Life news Part #1 for this week: 

I'M ENGAGED!

Since Thursday night, April 12th, around 7:45pm, my entire life has become filled with more blessings in ways that I could never have hoped or imagined God had in store for me, starting with my new fiancé and husband-to-be :)

Literally seconds before Adam proposed!

The Proposal

With this past weekend being our placement service for internship, Adam and I both had a lot of family coming into town. We had planned a while ago to have a date night before the craziness of placement weekend started, which brings us to last Thursday night.

The battery on Adam's macbook has been slowly dying, so he mentioned that maybe we would go downtown for dinner and that he could get his battery looked at while we were there (downtown is the closet Apple store to us). I thought that sounded fine, and was looking forward to being off campus for a little too! His appointment was for 5pm and dinner reservations were at 5:30pm. 

We left for downtown after he got out of class, our friend Kevin dropped us off at the el station since were starting to cut our time frame for getting to the Apple store a little close. Despite (what I thought) was our best effort, we did not make it downtown in time for Adam's appointment at 5pm and were close to missing our dinner reservations. I know that Adam really values taking care of things, such as his laptop, so I offered that maybe we could try to get an appointment at the Apple store after dinner...he turned that idea down.

For dinner we ate at the Grand Lux Cafe, over looking downtown Michigan Avenue. It was awesome to spend time together and I SO enjoyed dinner - still completely oblivious to what the night would hold.

We finished eating and I suggested again that we try and stop by the Apple store and get Adam's battery looked at. He again, told me not to worry about it and that he did not really feel like going to the store anymore. Instead we ducked into Water Tower Place to see if we could shop for a shirt/tie he needed for our upcoming placement service. We were unsuccessful in finding one, and after leaving the mall decided to head down toward the lake because (my thoughts) - the weather was beautiful for it being a downtown spring night. 

We were close to the Lake Shore Drive Bike Path - which goes right along the lake front and has several beaches, so we headed out toward the closest beach.

(This is not from the night we got engaged, but this as taken from close to where we got engaged/what it looked like)

We walked for a while along the water (I was really surprised at how cold it wasn't that close to the lake front). Adam managed to innocently ask me what I was thinking about our upcoming year of internship locationally apart, thoughts I had about us, and shared with me how much of a priority I have always been and will always be for him. (Yes, I still had NO idea a proposal was coming). 

After walking for a while along the water, we came to a point were we had distanced ourselves from all of the runners/bikers out that night, and had the MOST perfect view of the skyline. (See picture at the beginning of this post!!!). We were standing admiring the skyline for a little while, when Adam told me he needed me to close my eyes for a second.

I said, "okay" and quickly closed my eyes and put my hands over my face. My thoughts at this point were simple - don't over think what he asked. Right before he asked me to close my eyes, I knew that he had something important we needed to talk about or he needed to say - however as I stood there with my face covered and eyes closed shut - I was still not even imagining what Adam had planned.

After a few seconds he told me I could open my eyes. When I took my hands off of my face, I opened my eyes to see my love and best friend down on one knee, smiling at me in a way I will never forget. He took my hand and I instantly started to tear up as he proceeded to tell me just how much he loved me and finished with asking me if I would marry him? (I later in the night had him write down all of what he actually said, I was a little too emotional to remember!!)

I said YES! The rest of that entire moment I cannot even put into words or describe. I have never before experienced the love and perfection that that moment held for us! It was incredibly special and truly wonderful beyond anything. 

The Rest of the Night

We called my parents first & then immediately called Adam's family. Over Christmas Adam had asked for my Dad's blessing and permission to ask me to marry him, of which Dad gave, so he had a little bit of an idea that a proposal was coming, but both my parents were surprised and excited by the news since they had no idea he had picked Thursday April 12th to pop the question :)

Adam's family knew that he was proposing that night and was anxiously awaiting our call!! We spent the rest of our night calling family and friends and sharing our exciting news. (FYI - engagement calls are super fun to make!)

My ring - He picked it out all by himself  :)

By the time we were back to school from downtown, had called as many people as we could, celebrated with our friends back at school, and gotten to Skype with Allison in Japan - it was early Friday morning and time for bed.

Even writing all of this down today, I still get the most amazing butterflies thinking about how our lives changed Thursday night. I am so thankful for the blessing God has given me in Adam and the way his love me reflects that of Christ for all of us!

One of the blessings with this new part of our lives, is the amount of love and support and congratulations all of our family and friends have been pouring out on us since we first shared our exciting news! We are so thankful for all of you and appreciate your continued prayers for us as we start preparing for our lives as husband and wife together.

Upcoming post: This is real life! Part #2: Placement Weekend