It's been four years...

Yes, it has been four years since what I consider to be one of the greatest days of my life. The day went something like this.

Saturday, October 18, 2003

Steve and I had been dating all of five weeks at this time. Last night I met his mom and stepdad for the first time. They are down visiting for the weekend. Steve and I are getting together with his parents and my parents for dinner tonight so that everyone can get acquainted. It is early afternoon and Steve calls me to ask me if he can pick me up early so I can go run errands with him before dinner. I told him I could as long as we could stop by the grocery store and get the things that I needed in order to do my part in contributing to Sunday lunch the next day. He said that would be okay. Around 4:00 he comes to my apartment and picks me up. We drive around for a little while, and I was totally clueless of where we were or where we were going. Suddenly, I realize that we are just off University Parkway by the Coliseum. The next thing I know, Steve is turning by the Coliseum and headed towards Groves Stadium. My heart stopped. This is where he took me for our first date. And then, he turns in there. There is no football game on that day and the stadium is eerily quiet. Steve said he needed to get something from there and that he was told one of the gates would be left open. And surely enough, it was. So we get out of the car and walk into the stadium. I see no one or hear anything. He then takes me up to the place where we sat on our first date. "This is the place, isn't it?", he says. I agree, shaking my head wondering exactly what was coming next. I soon found out. He said that he wanted to ask me three questions. I agreed to listen. He proceeded.
1. Will you make me the happiest man in the world?
2. Will you do me the profound honor of being my wife?
3. (He gets down on one knee) Will you marry me?
And he holds out a box with a ring in it. A ring, that the single Christian school teacher that I was never imagined would ever be put on my finger. It was so amazingly beautiful that I was in utter shock. So it took me a second to answer because of that shock, and Steve thinking I wasn't too sure about it all said, "Please !?!?"
Of course I said "Yes!" and when we embraced he secretly gave a thumbs up sign to his friend Jeffrey Griffin from WSJS who was up in the sound booth (and who also had conveniently left the gate open for us). Jeffrey then began to play "Spoken For" by Mercy Me over the loudspeakers of the football stadium. Both of us when hearing that song at separate times in the earlier weeks thought immediately of the other one and our relationship.
After the song finished, Steve said, "There is more". He took me down to the front of the field where on a music stand he had a Bible waiting for me. It says in the front cover "Presented to The Love of my Life. By your adoring man. On this, the day of our engagement, October 18, 2003". He told me that he always wanted Christ to be the center of our marriage.
After this final presentation, Jeffrey emerged from the sound booth for hugs of congratulations and picture taking time.
We met our parents later at Longhorn. I kept the ring hidden in my pocket until we were seated at the table at which time I began to flash it around pointing at things on my mom's menu. It took her a little bit, but finally she grabbed my hand and said, "I didn't get a good enough glimpse of that flash." At this point in time everyone started crying tears of joy and the waitress was caught in the midst of an emotional time.
That was four years ago today, and I still look at that ring on my finger and my heart stops. Not so much because of the beauty of the ring, but because of the love that is behind it and the wonderful man that I can now call my husband!