He liked it, so he put a ring on it!

He asked.

I said yes.

:)

I'm a little tardy in my posting of The Story. Please forgive. Today seems to be a particularly timely day to tell the tale, as I indeed have much to be grateful for. And I'm going to bend my rules a little bit for the content of this post - this is a blog for adventures, not the personal stuff. But I can make an exception this once...although this one kind of counts - I still see it as quite the adventure.

Ahem. Just a little background, to get you oriented, and for those who are saying, "You have a boyfriend?" Well, yes. Actually, he's my fiance. I've got to get used to saying that one. I have a Fiance. His name is David.

I met David at the beginning of this year at Institute. (Hooray for Institute!) We had quite a few months of nothing more than chatting for 10 or 15 minutes when we crossed paths, during which time we both started to notice that we had an awful lot in common. One thing led to another, and eventually we moved beyond the once-a-week chats. Since we'd taken our sweet little time letting the interest build, we sort of took off at a sprint once we started dating. We actually figured out very early on where we wanted things to go, which was a blow to my pride because I'd always been of the mindset that some things just take time. But I got over it. When it's right, it's right. I know now.

By the time I left for Africa, we'd built ourselves a nice, solid base. We kept in touch all through Kenya and continued dating once I got back. Things kept going wonderfully well despite our backwards schedules, and so we decided to proceed with what we'd basically already figured out after about one week.

Now. On to the good stuff.

Awhile back, David's cousin had a flight that connected in Dulles. The original connection out of Dulles was cancelled, so he got an overnight stay. He called to see if we could give him the grand tour while he was in town, which sounded like a fun adventure, so we were in. We picked him up that night at 11pm, took him to Ben's Chili Bowl, gave him a whirlwind night tour of the monuments, and got him back to his hotel by about 4am. 'Twas a fun adventure indeed.

Among the stops we made was the Lincoln Memorial, which was mostly deserted. We started chatting with the security guard, and he told us that the best part of his job was that he got to watch the sun come up behind the capitol building every morning. He was so convincing in his description of the sunbeams bouncing off the reflecting pool that we decided we'd have to get around to doing that, sometime, later. Definitely not that day, but sometime.

Fast forward to Saturday night, November 14. Seemingly out of nowhere, David turned to me and said, "Hey! We should go watch that sunrise at the Lincoln tomorrow!" Great idea! I love spontaneity! It had been rainy and gloomy in DC for the past few weeks, and it was finally clearing up (and not too cold yet), so it was an optimal time.

And so we went. I literally rolled out of bed at about 5:55, David came and picked me up at 6:00, and we headed into town. He’d thought ahead about the cold temperature, and he brought some thermoses of hot chocolate, along with some breakfast. Awesome. I love this guy. Not only is he adventurous, he's also always thinking of details to make my life better. And he was right about the weather. It was just a little chilly, and the sky was clear except on the horizon – perfect sunrise conditions. (Have I ever mentioned that one of my favorite things is sunrises and sunsets?) We snapped some photos, talked about his family's "Let the Magic Begin" post-Thanksgiving tradition, and joked about letting our own magic begin. Hello, foreshadowing?



We found our way up to a corner of the memorial, which really gives a grand view of the DC skyline. I did consider the fact that this was a bit of a perfect setting for someone to pop The Question, should they so desire...but I wrote off the possibility of anything happening because, remember, this was a "spontaneous" activity. Which I'm absolutely positive is exactly what David intended to make me think.



Once the sun finally peeked over the horizon, David said, "You know, there's really only one thing that would make this better."

“What?”
“If you said yes.”

Then he got down on one knee, brought out the ring he'd been hiding somewhere, and asked, “Will you marry me?!” (If I remember right, he was sort of giggling when he said it. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was in response to the gasp that I let out when he did it. In any case, it was adorable. I know I'm biased and all, but honestly - how could anyone say no to that?)



I didn’t actually say yes. I think my exact words were, “Of course!”

There were a lot of people passing by because of a race going on across the street. I don't know if anyone actually witnessed the proposal, but I hope someone did. I hope it made their day.

We're going to have a lot of fun. :)

You can see David's version of the story here.

Thanks to all for your support and excitement. It's definitely cause for celebration. I feel like I have already been abundantly blessed with a full and happy life, and things will only get better with David (and his family) in the picture. Now that he's here, I'm not really sure how I ever lived without him.