The Set Up

Okay friends, this is the moment that you have all been waiting for. Girls, this is a moment that you have been dreaming of for most of your lives. Pinterest ideas have nothing on the story that I am about to tell. This is our wonderful, precious, only-orchestrated-by-God engagement story...

PART ONE

July 4, 2011

He got down on one knee and he had a ring in his hands. It was the right time; God ordained. There was such a peace and presence that can only come from the Lord.

It all started earlier in the day. That morning at Lake Sam Rayburn was picture day. They had matching shirts for all the cousins, complete with birth order numbers ironed on the backs...the whole nine yards. This was one of the best stops on my dad's sabbatical for the summer. Christian got to fly out to celebrate July 4th with us at the family reunion. I was thrilled to have him there with us. As we stressed to get all the kids to smile and photos snapped, Christian pulled me aside and asked if I would like to get all pretty that evening to take pictures together. I said that we could do that, but deep down I really didn't want to because I was already sick of taking pictures.

Fast forward to the afternoon and we found ourselves out on the lake and skiing. It was my mom, dad, Landon, Emilie, me and Christian. We had a great time together. Once again, the idea of taking pictures later that evening was brought up; this time, it was my mom. She said that she wanted my Papa to take pictures down at "the beach" of her and my dad and also me and C. I started to think that it sounded like a sweet plan.

After the boat had been pulled in and parked near the shore, everyone slowly made there way back up to the lake houses. Eventually, it was just Christian and I that remained relaxing on the boat. We soaked up the sunshine and shared memories of our fun times together. Things like Christian subtly trying to impress me in high school or the times that we used our siblings as an excuse to hangout with each other. Those are funny stories for another day!

We talked of how difficult we have found it to share our story with others; often struggling to even find the words to describe all that God has done and all that he has taught us in the process. We also shared the desire we have to encourage young people to have more intentional and God-honoring relationships with the opposite sex. We both feel that God has written our love story and that he has used it to ultimately draw us closer to Him. We so desperately want to share the things that we have learned to others younger than us, maybe even those older.

Finally, and most especially on the boat that afternoon, Christian decided to begin telling me a story. He began telling our story aloud almost as if he were telling a child a bedtime story. I hope to have Christian write out that story for our children someday.

It is a story of a princess and a boy. I know that he mentioned that the princess was loved by her father and by many others, but especially by the boy. He did everything he could to get close to her; to get to know her. He learned that she loved people, loved to drink tea, but more importantly, she loved the Lord. The boy took her to every ball and they loved to dance the night away. Eventually, they began to fall in love...