The Proposal

It was a beautiful day five years ago today when I stood with Mr. Wonderful in front of 100 of our closest friends, family, and some teenagers, who crashed the party, and promised to love, honor and cherish him for the rest of my life.  Our kids were our bridesmaids and groomsmen.

 Some of the teens were kids my daughter had been friends with for years.  These were kids I piled (sometimes 12!) into my station wagon and took to church with me each Wednesday night, until they drove when they turned 16.

Many of  the teenagers who crashed the party, were kids we worked with at our church.  We had been youth leaders for many years and loved them dearly.  We didn’t mind that they crashed. 

They had been with us through a year of our dating.  In fact, I remember a retreat we went on where the girls I stayed with actually went through my text messages to try to find out if we were “officially dating”. 

They told me a year later..they couldn’t handle the guilt.

Mr. Wonderful and I met at our gym.  We were avid work -out fiends back then, and once someone introduced us to each other, we talked to each other and even became workout partners.  We were both scared to death at the ripe old age of thirty something to date, so we used our gym time as a time to get to know each other…

For months.

Finally, one day one of our friends suggested “Why don’t you two just get on with it and go to dinner or something?”

So we did, and the rest is history.

After we’d been dating a month or so, Mr. Wonderful asked me to co-teach a youth class with him.  And we’ve never stopped working with teens.

Anyway, the reason all the youth wanted to attend the wedding, was that many of them had been witness to The Proposal.

The Proposal happened one Wednesday night during youth service.  Mr. Wonderful decided that the youth had been such a huge part of our lives, that he would propose to me in front of them.

He and our youth pastor  teamed up and lured me into their plot.

They asked me to do the tithe and offering diddy before they took the offering.  Keep in mind, this was in front of 200+ kids and youth leaders so I was a little nervous.  I thought all week, and finally came up with my five minute speech, and rehearsed it in my head numerous times.

The night finally came, and I was surprised that all of our own kids showed up – who were NOT in youth, mind you.  When I asked Mr. Wonderful why, he gave some excuse like “they wanted to watch your speech” or something.

Great I thought, more pressure, more perspiration, more chance of screwing this up in front of more people! 

On top of that, I kept seeing the church staff filing in and standing in the back of the auditorium.  they stood against the wall…waiting for …SURELY NOT just to hear me speak?

What was going on?

I nervously went onstage and started my talk.  When I was done, I breathed a sigh of relief as Mr. Wonderful joined me on the stage.  They had told me that he would join me to try and pump our small group that we taught, so that wasn’t a surprise to me. 

The running joke in our small group went like this.  He & I sat on 2 stools in front of the class, kind of like a Regis and Kelly type situation.  We were supposed to team teach, but what inevitably happened, is that Mr. Wonderful never let me get a word in.

Well, it was no different tonight.  I listened as he went on and and on.  I had no idea what he was talking about and I got more and more confused as he began to talk about us as a couple. 

I mean I was really clueless.  The kids began to clap and cheer and I later found out they were flashing hearts on the drop-down video screens behind us.  Of course they were perfectly clear later, when I watched the video (The guy who ran the video for the church TV show had set up a video camera and taped us.) But right then? 

I was so confused…

Confused, right up until the moment Mr. Wonderful dropped down on one knee and began fishing around in his pocket.

We have a video of this moment.  You can see the genuine shock on my face in the video.  If you’d like to see it…click the following link.

I mean, this was the man who had bought me a sterling silver ring at American Eagle mere weeks before and almost hyper-ventilated in the mall walkway a few minutes later.  I did not think he was marrying material at that point in life, believe me.

Needless to say, I somehow stuttered a “Yes” and here we are five years later. 

Babe, you are truly my Mr. Wonderful.  Happy Anniversary.

I love you, I adore you and I am so glad you popped that question all those years ago. 

P.S To see some more great proposals click the button below to visit the RHOK site!