The Proposal

Over Labor Day weekend, Sean decided that it was going to be our weekend. I had suspected that he was going to propose sometime around then anyways. We had been thinking about marriage a lot, and we would set aside time to not be together so we could think about if getting married really was what we wanted to do.

During the summer, I had been in California doing research and spending time with my family. This meant that I had tons of time to reflect on the goals what I have set for myself, the direction I wanted my life to take, church talks that I had read, and what friends have told me about their marriage experience. I came back to Michigan with no doubt in my mind that I wanted to marry Sean.

Anyways, back to the story of the actual proposal (if you want to know more of the thoughts, feelings, soul-searching, etc that went on call me). Due to issues with moving in to my apartment, I was staying at Sean's house. He was going to the police academy and I was working a lot on my senior project... let me rephrase that, I was ONLY working on my senior project.

Sean's mother, Jo, asked me earlier in the week what Sean and I were planning to do over the weekend. I didn't really know except for going to South Haven -- Michigan claims that South Haven is their "Little piece of California." Jo, knowing that Sean had already purchased the ring over a week before, knew that that was where he was planning to propose to me. She had also been telling us since our first month of being together, "Why don't you two just get engaged already?" It's great to know that your future mother-in-law totally loves you and can't wait for you to be a part of the family. Then it was Friday of Labor Day Weekend, and Jo asked me if we were going to South Haven that night, and I said no because Sean was tired, and then she said, "Why doesn't he propose already? He's had the ring. I could have never waited this long if I were to propose to someone!" So then I knew that going to South Haven meant that I was going to be engaged.

Later that day Sean comes over after the academy and knowing that if I persuaded him enough that we would actually go out to the lake that night... All my cuteness and charm could not get that boy down to the beach that night, only later to find out that he still hadn't asked my parents' permission, which is really important. So later that night he calls my parents and they said yes.

Then Saturday morning my mom calls. She starts asking me all of these questions like "Do you want to marry Sean?" and "How do you think your life would be like if you married him?" and "Have you really thought about what you want?" So I knew that my parents were a little hesitant with letting their Christy-girl go. But after I reassured her of all the plans and everything that I had spent 3 months thinking about, she was happy for me, and said, "Can't wait to hear from you tonight!"

After the past 24 hours, I knew that something was going to happen that night. Sean took me to Clementine's which is a nice restaurant in South Haven, and then we walked down to watch the sunset. Once we found a part of the beach that we wanted to settle down on, Sean said something to the effect of "Let me take a picture of you with that beautiful sunset behind you." And me, loving the beach, was just looking over the landscape until Sean said that he got his camera out and was ready. When I turned around for the picture that he was supposed to take, he was on one knee with the most beautiful ring and asked me to marry him. I was rather embarrassed because he was almost the same height as me AND everyone around us was staring. I said yes, and it was amazing. We had both been super awkward on that date because I was trying to act like I didn't know what was going to happen that night and Sean was so nervous.

The drive home was amazing. We talked about our future children. plans. What lies in store for us. Then that night we both could not sleep because we were so excited, and we ended up watching at least 3 movies just holding each other tight the rest of the night. And we totally forgot to fast for testimony meeting the next day. But I think God understands.