The Proposal

Aaron and I officially started dating on November 8th, 2008.

Now here we are, three years later. Three crazy, heart-wrenching, painful, yet beautiful years that I wouldn't do differently for the world.

Tuesday was our 3 year anniversary. They may not have been consecutive years, but if you know anything about our story, you know that they're definitely still something to celebrate. Neither of us have class on Tuesdays and neither of us worked, so we had planned to spend the entire day together. I was told to be ready by 9:30, and was presented with a beautiful bouquet of my favorite flowers when he picked me up. We went to Starbucks and each got a coffee (hazelnut coffee with cream for him, skinny vanilla latte for me), and we headed up to Palmer Park. [For those of you who are unfamiliar, Palmer Park is huge and gorgeous and overlooks most of Colorado Springs with an incredible view of Pikes Peak]. It just so happened that we were the only two people around, and we sat down on a bench to have a quiet time together. He asked me what I would like to read, and I requested Psalm 93 and 94 because I have been working my way through the Psalms by reading two per day. When I asked him what he wanted to read, he flipped to 1 John 4 and read verses 7-21 aloud to me:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, his is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

After he finished reading, he handed me a card. The card was blank, but on the inside he had written "November 8, 2011..." I looked up at him and he said, "The rest I have to do on one knee." He knelt down in front of me and started saying all sorts of beautiful things that unfortunately I can't remember because at this point I was FREAKING OUT. He pulled the (giant) ring box out of his coat pocket and opened it, and inside was the most gorgeous, perfect diamond ring I've ever laid eyes on. It's his great-grandmother's diamond that he had set especially for me!

Well obviously, I said yes! And as soon as I did, our dear friend Michael Lyon popped out from behind some rocks--he had been photographing the entire proposal :) Michael took a few more pictures, then we started making phone calls and set off to enjoy the rest of our day together. We had lunch in Castle Rock with his mom and his brother, Nate; walked around Park Meadows Mall; went to Denver to see his brother, Stephen's new house (which is hands down the sweetest house I've ever seen); and walked around 16th Street Mall before having dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Yesterday was perfect--the most wonderful day of my life, and I'm proud to announce that I'm now officially engaged to my best friend and the love of my life!