 |
| courtesy Olivia Mangrum |
I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this, but I could not have scripted our engagement any more perfect that how it played out. God has a funny way of allowing things to happen exactly how and when they should. Marilisa and I got engaged on August 3, 2010 and here is the story from my perspective:
For about the two years I knew that I wanted to propose at dusk, under a perfect sunset, and out in a field, hopefully far removed from anyone. And thus the search began for the perfect spot, deep down I knew that when I found the spot I would know right away. Last July, on the way to a best friend's wedding rehearsal (how ironic) I drove by an open field off Route 53 in Watkinsville, Ga and instantly knew I had found where I wanted to propose. Being about a month before I was planning on asking her, I was definitely relieved to have found the place that would change my life forever. I was working at a summer camp at the time, and we had a few more weeks of camp before we finished for the summer. Once camp was over, I made a trip back to that field around the time of day I'd be asking her to get a feel for how the sun looked. I was blown away at how beautiful it was, just setting above a tree line. My next step was to ask permission to use the property, and this proved to be an enjoyable task.
If you're familiar with the South at all, you know that large, open fields are pretty common and it's often unclear who owns them. So when I went back to get a closer look at the field, I had to figure out who owned it and then ask if it would be ok to use it in about a month. I went to the closest house and luckily, found the owners of the property. I spoke to an older woman who told me her husband owned the field, but that he was out of town at the NASCAR race, and that I could give him a call the next day, after church of course. I immediately felt better about the type of man I was dealing with, and left excited and relieved to have found the owner.
Early the next afternoon, I removed a folded napkin from my wallet that had the man's number on it and dialed the number I had written down. He answered and I stated my name and how I had gotten his phone number and that I had a big favor to ask of him. I told him that I wanted to use his property to propose to my best friend and that I would only need the space for around 30 minutes. He responded by asking how old I was, and after telling him my age (22) he determined that I was old enough to get married and said he had no problem with me using his field...under one condition. Intrigued by this request, I asked what the condition was and found out that he wanted to give me some marriage advice and that if I wanted to use his property I'd have to listen for the next few minutes. He proceeded to tell me that he and his wife have been married for over 50 years and that the only reason they had lasted was that God had always been at the center of their marriage. He went on to tell me that for our marriage to last I would need to be willing to sacrifice my time and money and do my best to make her happy. I was blown away and had never been a bigger believer of Hebrews 13:2.
After receiving his blessing, all that was left was for the ring to arrive and for the time to pass. It was seriously the longest week of my life. My plan all along had been to ask Marilisa after we celebrated our 2 year anniversary, and because she was going to be out of town on the actual day (July 31st) we had decided to celebrate on August 2nd. August 2nd was a very interesting day, and I'm sure Marilisa will provide more details about that day. I'll skip right to the day I asked her, August 3rd. My day started early, I had to be at work on the south side of Atlanta at 7am, but luckily was finished by noon and headed straight up to Athens.
Now I had been planning the specifics of how I was going to ask her and what I was going to say for months and finally had nailed down a plan. Planning how I was going to ask wasn't really the difficult part, I knew that Marilisa wanted something simple and outside and so I felt good about the field and the scenery. I had also bought a really nice dining room table that had been constructed with wood from an early 1800s smokehouse and had planned to have that in the field as well. Back in May, we had gone to a local antique store and as soon as she saw the table she loved it and I knew I had to get it for her. She didn't know this at the time, but I went back to the store later that day and bought the table and had been storing it in my garage for about 3 months.
But anyways, back to what I was writing earlier. The setup wasn't the difficult part, the hard thing was figuring out what to say to the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I felt like I had a million thoughts and needed to condense them down into something shorter. After a lot of prayer and thought I figured out what I wanted to tell her.
Once I got back to Athens, I went to hang out with my brother for the afternoon which really helped me to be calm and just enjoy the day. We watched some movies and talked about the plan for later. Early in the afternoon, we loaded the table into a friends truck, drove it out to the field and left a bunch of yellow daisy's on the table. All that was left was for me to change clothes and pick up Marilisa for what she thought was a dinner date with one of the married couples in our church.
I picked her up at around 7:30, with a ring in my pocket, knowing that both of our lives were about to change forever. On the way to "dinner" I told Marilisa that we needed to stop at the grocery store to pick up some bread for dinner and as we pulled in I received a phone call (from a friend) telling me that the couple we were supposed to meet with wasn't feeling good and that they would need to reschedule. Marilisa offered to make me dinner, but I told her that we could eat later and suggested that we go for a drive because there was a new place that I wanted to take her too. As we drove out to the field, I tried to enjoy the moment and remember the speech I had been practicing. We pulled on to the field, and in classic Marilisa fashion she asked if we were allowed to be here; I reassured her by telling her that I knew that guy who owned it and that it wouldn't be a problem. We drove up the table, I think it was pretty obvious at this point what was about to happen.
We got out of the car and walked towards the table and as we walked I told Marilisa that I had been reading lately out of Genesis and learning some really cool things about God's plan for the role of a woman in a man's life. I told her that the Hebrew word for "helper" in Genesis could be translated as "lifesaver" and that I felt this perfectly described how I saw her role in my life. I told her that a man would only need a lifesaver if his life was going to be dangerous and full of adventure. I then invited her to go on an adventure with me for the rest of her life and that I wanted her to be my lifesaver, that no one else would be able to fill that role the way she could. I got down on one knee, pulled out the ring and asked her to marry me. Before I could finish asking "Will you marry me?" she interrupted me with "It's so pretty" referring to the ring and then said "Yes!" I was relieved, excited and it seriously felt like we were the only people on the planet (until this kid drove behind us on an ATV).
All in all, the day could not have been more perfect. We left Athens and drove back to Atlanta to celebrate with her family and then flew to Connecticut to be with mine. It was one of the most amazing days of my life and a memory that I will always cherish.
