On December 26th 2009 Josh and I were going to celebrate Christmas together. Due to a commitment I had in Lakeland, I could not go with him to Marianna to visit his family for Christmas, so on the 26th both him and his parents were going to drive down to celebrate Christmas with me. Josh was supposed to show up at 9am for us to do Christmas together, and his parents would arrive that evening around 6pm and have dinner with us. I was rather anxious and excited to see Josh as I had been in Ohio the week before and had not spent any time with him for a week. I was missing him like crazy, but focused on planning the Turkey dinner I was going to make for everyone.
The morning of the 26th, I realized much to my frustration, that I had forgotten to buy eggs for the cheesecake I was making that night for dessert. I sent Josh a text message asking him to bring me two eggs on his way to come see me. To which he replied “no. We can go out and get them when I get there.” To be honest, this response irritated me. I was excited to see Josh and didn’t want to waste time shopping, but I decided to just keep a good attitude about it…although I didn’t text him back. Just went about getting ready for the morning.
Right on time at 9am, Josh showed up and we jumped into the car right away to go get eggs. I was very happy to see Josh…however, I soon noticed that he was passing the store that we needed to go too. I pointed this out to him and he informed me that he wanted to go to a particular store that was about 25 minutes away. This again irritated me. After all, all I needed were two eggs. But I decided to just go along with it and let Josh go to the store that he wanted too….I’m so glad I decided to keep a good attitude…
As we neared the grocery store destination, I realized that again Josh was not going the direction needed for the store. I asked him again where we were going. At this point, he was said that he wanted to go the lake. He said that he wanted to do my Christmas present there. Though I’m sure it should have been obvious to me what was happening…I was still distracted. I was disappointed that I had left Josh’s Christmas present at the house and couldn’t give him his when he gave me mine. Josh reassured me that this was what he wanted to do and that it was going to be fine. So again, I decided to keep a good attitude and go along. Besides, I was spending time with Josh, more than an enough of a reason to smile.
It didn’t begin to dawn on me that he was about to propose until we got out of the car at the lake. I saw him hurriedly put a couple things in his pockets and then he led me over the bench that has become “our spot” at the lake. It was the place that took ice cream too at the end of our first date months before. Josh sat me down and handed me a card made out of yellow construction paper. The front said “a Poem to Ashley with love.” Inside the card read:
I want to hear your voice
I want to hold your hand
I want to kiss your chin
I want to laugh with you
I want to cry with you
I want to grow with you
I wan to see your soul
I want to walk at God’s pace
Such beauty and such grace
The other side of the card said that there was a word missing at the end of each stanza and he asked me what word is it? I told him I didn’t know…I thought it was the word forever…but just in case he was not proposing…I felt that “I don’t know” would be the safer option…
Josh told me that the word was “forever,” that he wanted to do all these things with me forever. And then he pulled out the ring, got down on his knee, and said “Will you marry me?”
I said “YES” and gave him a really big hug. While giving me a hug, Josh pulled out his phone, dialed a number and said “ok” and then hung up the phone. I was confused on why he was on the phone just minutes after our proposal and also to who was he talking to when all he said was “ok.” But he just hugged me really tight and then told me that his parents (who were not supposed to get in town until later that night) were actually sitting across the lake, had watched the proposal, and were walking over, and that was what the phone was about.
A couple minutes later, his parents walked up to us with yellow flowers, (my favorite) a congratulations card, and Josh’s laptop computer. Josh sat me back down on the bench and opened his laptop. There was a pre-recorded video of congratulations from my parents (who lived in Ohio and could not be there in person). It was a very unexpected surprise and incredibly thoughtful way to have included both sets of parents in the proposal.
We then finally did make it to the grocery store to purchase eggs, and I spent the rest of the day with my new in-laws and my absolutely wonderful fiancé who humorously pointed out that we had gone out for eggs, and came back with Karats.
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