ENGAGED!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!

andrew and i headed down to seattle for the weekend with 30 of the senior highs and i certainly did not expect to be coming home with a ring on my finger.

the drive down on friday afternoon/evening was absolutely horrid. andrew and chris drove the majority of the sr highs in the two fifteen passenger vans, and i drove andrew's truck with the luggage and three senior high girls. all was going well until we got to the border. andrew and finch were about twenty cars ahead of me and they made it through with very little trouble at all. when i got to the border, however, i was questioned about anything and everything by a very grumpy old border guard. he got mad at me for driving andrew's truck. he got mad at me because the forms that i had for the girls weren't formal enough. he got mad at me for having everyone's luggage (even though that's how we always arrange things and we don't usually have any trouble at all). he even got mad at me for the apple core in the garbage can. after getting as mad as he could, he wrote us up and made us pull over to be searched. that's where we met santiago. he was the equally disgruntled border guard who yelled at us and wouldn't believe that we just wanted to go to seattle to visit and shop with our youth group. after checking our passports for the 57th time, he headed out to the truck and searched everything. when he saw that we really didn't have anything explosive or illegal he reluctantly let us return to the truck and continue on down to seattle.

you can imagine the mood i was in as i drove down. yeah, i was happy that i was finally allowed to continue the trip, but never before had i met two boarder guards as tempermental and down-right mean as those two guys.

when we finally made it to seattle, we pulled up at the church where we were staying (mars hill - west seattle campus), unloaded the truck and the vans, had a quick tour of the place, then jumped back into the vans and proceeded to drive to the space needle for a late night view of the city.

walking up to the space needle andrew told me that he wanted grant and i to organize a surprise snack for the kids. he gave the two of us tickets and we headed up top before everyone else. on the way up grant was a little more serious and focussed than usual, and i questioned whether or not the proposal would happen that night, but i tried not to think about it and continued on as usual. once at the top, it was my job to find a place outside on the deck where all the kids would be able to congregate. i sat out there waiting and as i waited i took a few pictures of the view with my phone. when i turned around i saw one of the kids (geoff cotter) walking towards me with a huge smile on his face and a gerbera daisy in his hand. at that moment i knew exactly what was happening and i began shaking, crying, laughing and smiling all at the same time. as each of the senior highs and leaders passed me a flower they all said something encouraging/something that they loved about me. it was AMAZING. i am so blessed to have such incredible senior highs and friends.

when all thirty had given me their flowers, i stood and waited for andrew. he waited a minute or two after the last of them and then walked toward me with the last flower. all of the kids watched from inside the space needle, with their bodies pressed up against the glass. the first thing he said to me as i stood there smiling/laughing/crying was, "sooo... do you like stuff?" and i answered, "yeah...i like stuff". after that he proceeded to say some incredible beautiful things, then got down on one knee, opened the box and asked me to marry him. i can't remember my exact reaction, but i said yes! it was difficult for him to put on the ring as i balanced all thirty flowers and greenery, but he did it. now not only do i have a beautiful ring, but i also have a beautiful man that i'm going to marry next summer.

i don't think i could be any happier