The Rest of the Story

well let's see. it all started four score and about 4 weeks ago with the most incredibly awkward first date anyone has ever been on. i was not at all nervous until i pulled into the parking lot of the bowling alley where we agreed to meet. it was not until then that reality hit me and i realized that i was meeting who would soon become the woman of my dreams. it seemed like the date lasted forever, and i was certain that she could not wait for it to be over so she could go home. before the night had ended, i asked if we could go out again, and to my surprise she said yes. it was like she was giving me a second chance to redeem myself. at that very moment i knew that she was different; special. i have been falling deeper and deeper into this crazy little thing called love. and now you know the rest of the story. well, maybe not the entire rest of the story, but the rest as of so far.

The Proposal

We have been talking about getting married since the first week. It started out as a joke but the more we talked about it the more realistic it became. We knew that we wanted to get married this summer so I was expecting a proposal soon. I was supposed to go out of town for the weekend but I got sick and the weather was bad so I decided not to go. Instead I went to visit him for the weekend. We had plans to hang out all day Saturday and run errands but that morning he got called to work for awhile. We went to breakfast at his grandmother's house and then we went our separate ways. I went to run errands and he went to work. We were done about the same time so we were going to try to get haircuts. He showed up back at the apartment and told me that he had gotten me an appointment but he wasn't going to be able to go because he had another errand to run. We had planned on going to a dinner at church that night so I was going to make cookies to bring. After my haircut I went back to his apartment to make the cookies. Once they were in the oven I curled up in the recliner to rest when there was a knock on the door. I told them to come in but no one did so I got up to answer the door figuring that it was someone who wouldn't know that I was going to be there. When I opened the door this is what I saw.

He said the magic words, "Will you marry me?" I was so shocked that I nearly fainted but I managed to hold myself up with the wall and the door as I told him yes. We were so happy and there were tears of joy. After a couple minutes of hugging and some innocent kissing I asked him if I could see the ring because I hadn't really even paid attention to it when he asked. He just handed me the box so I told him that he had to put the ring on my finger. We just sat together and smiled for almost 20 minutes before we called anyone or sent out messages. We are so happy and so blessed to have found each other.

ALICIA'S STORY

Bryan and I have known each other for close to 12 years, his older sister and I played softball together throughout high school. When I graduated and left home for college I didn't come back for 7 years. As soon as I moved back over the summer Erin, my best friend since the age of 10, started trying to set us up. At the time I was very ill so I refused. I knew who she was talking about and I remembered him from all those years ago. She was very persistent and kept asking me to just give it a chance. In January I decided that I would give in. We started with messages on Facebook. It was awkward for both of us so he asked for my number. The night after I gave him my number I broke out in hives in anticipation of his call. It was another 3 days before he actually called. We talked for awhile but we didn't have a lot to say. We decided to go on a date that weekend. We met at the bowling alley where we had to wait to for 45 minutes for a lane and just stood there with nothing to say. Once we finally started bowling he beat me by 100 pins. By the third game he only beat me by 2 pins. After that we went for ice cream and then to a church social. It was an awkward first date but I knew that I really wanted to see him again. We decided that since I live an hour away we would go out again the next weekend.

On Tuesday of the next week he read my blog and realized that I was dealing with a major illness. I had planned on telling him, just not on our first date. So we had a long phone conversation and I tried my best to reassure him that I am better now than I have been in years and that the doctors feel like I'll be healed soon. On Thursday he didn't have to work so he drove an hour to take me to lunch and he surprised me with a dozen red roses. We planned to go out that Saturday night but we ended up going out Friday night, Saturday night, and all day Sunday. That Sunday I was feeling pretty sick and was having a lot of heart palpitations that were painful. We were sitting on his couch just talking and he could see that I was in a lot of pain so he put his arm around me and the pain stopped immediately. That was the moment that I knew I would spend the rest of my life with him. The next 3 weeks were a whirlwind of dates and late night phone calls. On Valentine's Day we said I love you and we've never looked back.

Bryan is the most amazing person in the world. He has so much kindness and patience for everyone but especially for me. He takes care of me and loves me in spite of all my weaknesses. I have never been so happy or so at peace in all my life. We know that this has happened fast but we feel like it's right. Our families are both so happy for us and our friends are celebrating.

It is truly amazing to see how God works in our lives through the good times and the bad. I have had three really bad years in a row and when I quit my job to move back home I felt like my life was in shambles. If I hadn't gotten sick I would have never moved back home and I wasn't all that happy about it. When Erin and I started hanging out again and spending more time together I was so relieved to have a friend that knew me for me and not for the person that I had become since I'd gotten sick. I trust her completely and when she wanted to set me up I knew that it wasn't just to have something to do. I knew that she truly believed that he would be the best person in the world for me and I was also honored to know that she felt that I would be the best person for him. It is wonderful how things work out when you quit worrying about them. I had decided a couple months ago that I wasn't really going to worry about finding a husband anytime soon but that if something happened then I would be open to it. I never imagined that I would be getting married this year. I honestly thought that I'd never get married but I always hoped that I was wrong.

Thank you to Erin who is truly our ANGEL and thank you to our families for the love and support. We know that you love us both and are so happy for us. We know that we are crazy and that this relationship has progressed at warp speed but we know in our hearts and souls that this is bigger than the 2 of us and that this has been GOD's plan all along.

Pray for us as we start our lifelong journey together.