Just engaged!

So… I got engaged last weekend! I’ve been meaning to take some time to write it down but as you can imagine, it’s been a bit of a crazy week. Here’s the story… in case you’re curious.

Josh and I have been talking, praying, waiting on the Lord, etc. for a while to figure out what God wants for our relationship. About a month or two ago (Valentine’s Day to be exact), we had a heart to heart and I basically said, “I want to wait for you to decide… but I can’t wait forever.” He put a tentative deadline on it and decided by the end of March, we needed to make a decision – we’re either in or we’re out.

A couple of weeks ago he started acting differently – something about him made me think that he’d made a decision to go for it which meant I started reading into everything he did. (#girlproblems) Even to the point where I actually had this hunch that Tuesday of last week (we were supposed to have dinner and watch Fixer Upper) I thought he was going to propose. I ended up having to work late that night and it didn’t work out to hang out, so... no proposal. (That wasn’t his plan anyway…) Other conversations with him, my mom, and others made me think that he was going to do it. Then on Friday night, we had dinner with my parents and something about their conversation made me think that I was wrong all along and had been reading into things that weren’t there.

So after dinner, we went back to my place and watched some Fixer Upper (that’s our new thing). He could tell I was down and asked how I was doing. I just laid it out there, “We said the end of March and it’s almost the end of March. We’re running out of time. Are you any closer to making a decision on our future?” He replied with a VERY convincing, “I don’t know, Abby…” “Well, if you don’t know now, you’re not going to know in a week, so we might as well just end it.” “Let’s just get through this weekend with your family and we’ll deal with it later.” I was SO discouraged.

The next day I texted my mom something like, “You could pray for me – I’m really in a funk. Had a hard talk with Josh last night and I don’t think he’s any closer to being ready. I am afraid I’m going to have to end it.” She responded with normal encouraging, godly mom-like things. I met them for lunch without Josh and was just sad… They were sympathetic but didn’t say much. Josh joined us later in the day to watch the Oklahoma and KU basketball games (RIP Jayhawks AND Sooners...) and in his words, “You were cooold.” We watched the games then headed home and confession – I cried the whole way home in anticipation of having to end this relationship.

Then Sunday came. We did church together and had plans to drive to Olathe to have an Easter lunch with my extended family. I was just trying to focus on Easter and what Jesus did on the cross because that’s bigger and better than any of my earthly woes. Josh told me that he had to be the closer after church so we had to wait til everyone cleared out and then turn off lights, lock up, etc. He asked me to help him turn off the lights so we walked in the sanctuary and I noticed that the light behind the stage was still on so I walked back there to turn it off. When I came back out to the stage…

He was on one knee with a ring in his hands! I’m not 100% sure what was said after that. I cried and definitely exclaimed some things like, “Oh my gosh! Are you serious? Oh my gosh! Are you sure?” and he didn’t say anything. Then me, in my typical direct fashion, said, “So… are you going to ask me?” He asked, “Will you marry me?” I said yes, we said I love you for the first time, and the rest is history! Then I looked around and our friend King was there taking pictures. We chatted a bit then headed to Olathe where we were greeted by my parents – who knew all along because Josh chatted with my dad the few weeks leading up to it – and the rest of my family who celebrated with us as we walked in the door.

There's a guitar in the way... but this is him proposing. (Unfortunate angle but you get the gist!)

I was pretty excited...

Awkward kissing picture... 

 Telling the story to my family... with a truck as our stage.

We’re engaged! Still can’t really believe it. Can’t believe that I went from thinking that I was sadly going to have to move on, to happily starting to plan the rest of my life with this guy!

Simply and perfectly beautiful. He couldn't have picked a better one for me.

(Now on to wedding planning. I’m going to apologize in advance – this blog may be a little wedding centric over the next 6 months. But let’s do this!)