Engaged!! From Her Side

For those of you who have asked for this story, here it is in full detail (probably more detail than you ever wanted to know!).

For those of you who have no clue what I’m talking about, read on :)

This last Saturday (April 13, 2013), I went on a date. This was actually my birthday date (I turned 21 on Friday), and so Joe offered to take me out for my birthday. I complied on one condition: he was not allowed to buy me anything for my birthday because I knew he was saving up for a ring, and I wanted him to just put money towards that. So we agreed (or so I thought). I had been at a friend’s house helping her put together wedding invitations for her wedding in June, and so I asked Joe to meet me there. He picked me up around 11. As soon as I got in the car, he hands me an envelope and says “there shall be no arguing, questioning, or complaining from this point forward.” I looked at him a little oddly, but agreed. He continued, “You have always wanted to do an Amazing Race, and so today we are going to do one. That envelope is your first clue.”

At this point, a bit excited, I opened the first clue which led to a half-constructed house that we had taken shelter in a few weeks prior when our walk was rudely interrupted by a monsoon. Following this first clue were twenty more, totaling 21 locations. At each location, Joe had written down a character quality that he appreciated about me and where he found that quality in scripture. Most of these locations were places Joe and I had been on dates, though a few were new to me. In case you want to see some of the locations, here they are:

Half-built home

Clark's Creek Park

Roegner Park

Rainforest Cafe

Sounders Stadium, First Date**

Greenlake

Gasworks Park

Kerry Park

Discovery Park

Our last location was Discovery Park in Seattle. I received the 20^th clue, which read “Shine your light for all to see. Time to walk”. There was a lighthouse about a mile away, so we began to walk. We ended up taking the “road less traveled” to get to our destination, which involved semi-skipping down steep sand dunes through the woods to get to the beach. I don’t think that was the way we were supposed to go, but we had an adventure anyways. About twenty minutes later, we reached the lighthouse.

Now, just so you know, the weather last Saturday was supposed to be horrible! I mean downpour of rain all day long. But we were blessed tremendously up until this point with fairly okay weather. It was still cloudy, but the sun would peak through at points and we only walked in the rain once. Praise Jesus! As we approached the lighthouse, we could see (and hear) a thunder storm off to the left, so we knew we didn’t have a lot of time here. We walked around the front of the lighthouse and took a couple pictures.

View from the beach

Puget Sound

The Lighthouse

Without moving from my spot at the fence, Joe handed me the last clue. The character quality he appreciated about me was Love, and he had written me a poem about it. He concluded the poem with

“Now I have something I want to read and promise you”

(For those wondering, this is where I started to pick up on what was happening).

He pulled out another piece of paper and read from Ephesians 5, which talks about husbands loving their wives as Christ loves the Church. He told me how much he loved me, and that he wanted to love me forever like Christ loves the church. He got down on one knee, pulled out a ring, and asked me to marry him!!!

Storm is starting to set in, but we're engaged!

I was in complete and utter shock. We had been talking about getting married, but I hadn’t expected it for a couple more months. I managed to give him an overly excited yes as I stood there speech-less and breath-less, attempting to get my mind wrapped around the fact that this just happened and I was actually going to marry the love of my life!! We stood there for a few minutes, received our first congratulations from a father and his kids that just happened to be on the beach and watched him propose to me. I just didn’t move, still attempting to process all the excitement and joy and amazement that I was feeling. It wasn’t until Joe reminded me that there was a thunderstorm about to set in and we were a mile from the car. We began to walk back and no sooner than we left the lighthouse, it began to hail. HARD.

By the time we reached the car we were completely drenched. Joe had made dinner reservations downtown Seattle at P.F. Changs, and thankfully by the time we reached them we had mostly dried off. We had dinner, received a sweet congratulations from the kitchen staff, and headed down south to tell my parents (well, sorta. Joe had already asked their permission).

The sweet kitchen staff at P.F. Changs

As we got closer to home, Joe suggested going to the church to map out where we wanted everything to fit for the wedding. Since we had been planning on getting married, we had actually already begun to talk wedding planning. He knew I wanted to get married at our church, so we decided to stop by while it was still light out. As we pulled into the church parking lot, there were a ton of cars there. I asked Joe about them, and his reply was “well, they think we’re having a surprise birthday party for you, which we are. What they don’t know is that it is also an engagement party”.  We walked inside, everyone yelled “SURPRISE!!!” and sang happy birthday, and then gave the mic to Joe. He thanked everyone for coming, and then added “oh, and by the way, we just got engaged!” What followed was much rejoicing and hugs and “how did it happen” questions and lots of good food. I felt so incredibly blessed that all these people would come to celebrate my birthday, and then that we got to celebrate our engagement on top of it with our friends and family.

So, that’s how it happened. I am engaged to be married to Joseph Mark Keith on August 17^th, 2013. I am so incredibly blessed to be engaged to the man of my dreams. Joe is the Godliest man that I know, and he is so loving and caring and passionate and gracious and funny. He desires that God is first in his life in everything, and seeks to share the gospel wherever he goes, and yet never ceases to amaze me in how he cares for me (from everything to buying me comfort food during finals to bringing me flowers when I am sick to spending an evening helping me do my homework). I am SO excited to see where God will take us and how He will use us, humbled by the fact that I have the privilege to be Joe's wife for life, and yes I’m just a tiny bit excited for the wedding ;)

If you would like to read his side of the story, please visit his blog!