This could take you a while to read - but I didnt want to miss a thing...

Well after an 8-hour flight of anticipation, I arrived in North Carolina on
December the 18th at 11:30pm. I had this whole conspiracy planned out in my
head that when I got to the airport there, Jeremy was going to pop out from
somewhere and surprise me - as we base our trips and what not around
surprising each other! But there was no Jeremy there. So I figured I had
pulled a fast one on HIM by flying in 6 days before I told him I was going
to and 3 days before he flew in from Africa! So I began planning in my head
something BIG to surprise him with at the airport in 3 days!

The next morning I went with Janice, Jeremy's mother, to her wellness day
spa and she relentlessly tried to get me to get my feet done - I refused! I
had just gotten a pedicure done 2 weeks ago - "they were fine", I kept
saying! As we were leaving the spa Janice said that she had to drop
something off at the church, so we stopped by there on our way to "pick up
some light supper" - good one Janice :). So she ran into the church and I
waited in the car. She came out and sit down in her car and she didn't have
her keys. Now all day Janice had been losing her stuff including her keys
about 4 or 5 odd times - so I wasn't surprised at all that she had forgotten
them in the church. So I went on in to go get them for her as her phone had
rang and she was talking on it. I walked into the church and there were
hundreds of white rose pedals all over the floor. I thought to myself, "odd,
they must have had a Christmas celebration or a party of some sort."

So I kept walking and as I turned the corner to walk into the sanctuary,
where Janice had said she had thought she had left her keys, I saw candles!

Lots and lots and LOTS of candles! Little tea-light ones in wine glasses
making a path all the way to the stage. The stage looked like it was set up
for a Christmas play as there were lights everywhere - little white lights
lit up the stage and the beautiful Christmas tree in the corner. I actually
walked into the sanctuary and said out loud, "what is going on"!

Yeah call me blonde or whatever, I still didn't get it! Then all of a sudden
I realized that there was music playing, I thought "did these people have a
party and just up and leave all of a sudden" - yep still didn't clue in!!

And here's the funny thing - when I realized what song was playing,
Cannonball - by Damien Rice - it was in the like second verse cause it had
been playing since I walked in and I hadn't notice. Oh and that song, yeah
that is Jeremy and my song! I think that it was then when I realized what
song it actually was that I kinda started to clue in.

So I walked back to the doors in the sanctuary and there was a table set up
and a card sitting on top, surrounded by tea-lights. I picked it up and
there was a soapstone carving behind it - I knew then FOR SURE that Jeremy
was up to something - cause you get soapstone art from Africa. Anyways -at
this point I started bawling but I STILL didn't think that he was ACTUALLY
THERE! So I began reading the card and it said "walk to the stage and sit in
the chair, and don't bother looking for me, you won't find me". So when I
read that - I seriously thought that Jeremy had sent all of this home and
was just ,making a nice night for me- without him there - cause I STILL
didn't think that he was actually there!!

So as I tired to read the card, while tears were running down my face and I
was trying to walk to the stage - I kicked a wine glass over and the
tea-light went FLYING!! I said out loud, "Oh crap!" but kept on walking to
the front. The card took me forever to read cause I couldn't see very well -
but I finished reading it - if you know Jeremy's writings you will know that
what he write could pierce any heart and leave a person speechless - he does
that often to me!

So there I am sitting on a chair, speechless, on the church stage with a
MASSIVE bouquet of flowers on my lap (they were on the chair). The last
thing that he had instructed me to do in the card was for me to close my
eyes and wait. So I did. I heard someone moving and the song changed to a
worship song. The next thing I knew Jeremy was beside me and he kissed my
forehead. Oh and in the card it told me to take off my shoes before I sat in
the chair. So there we are: surrounded by a million little lights, I'm
sitting in a chair with no shoes on and Jeremy kneels in front of me. He
takes off my socks and pulls out a basin of water, which he had put up there
and began to wash my feet. As he was doing this, he pulled out his Bible and
read to me the passage about Jesus washing his disciples' feet and another
passage about how husbands are to love their wives just as the Lord loves
his church. He pulled my feet out of the water, pushed the water aside and
then got on one knee. He looked at me and with a little black box in his
hand he asked, "will you give me the honor of becoming your husband?" I
think I said yes - I was so beside myself - I still couldn't believe he was
here!!! He put the ring on my finger and asked me to dance with him.

He had cleared out about 5-6 rows of chairs for us to dance. If you know me
then you know how much I love to dance - so we did and we held each other as
the songs went on and on! We were engaged! I kept saying - "I'm going to
marry you" and "you did it - the best surprise ever - you did it"!! Jeremy
had actually gotten into North Carolina 3 hours before me the night before
and had avoided me for that night and the entire next day - all to
completely surprise me!!!!

Then he told me we were going out for dinner at the Melting Pot - a super
ridiculously nice restaurant. But he said that I couldn't wear what I had on
- and he had actually gone into the room where I was staying at his house
and repacked my entire suitcase and brought it to the church - so I put on a
little black dress and off we went! It is now the next morning and I still
have to look down at my finger to actually believe it really happened!!

Oh and just to make things a little more crazy! Jeremy's brother Jonathan -
who was supposed to be in Australia showed up at the house last night at
about 12:30am!!!! TOTALLY UNANNOUNCED!! So Janice had actually picked up all 3 of us at different times and hadn't told any of us what was going on - she is a good ally to have in on your plans!! So last night I think that I fell
asleep at 4:30am on the kitchen table (mom I knew you would love that part)
as Jeremy and Jonathan - both on jet-leg - talked until 6am, then made
breakfast. Now its 11:30am and I'm just getting up. What a crazy night!!!!!!

Praise God for all that he is doing and has done!! He is so good!!

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!!!!!

(okay so thats OLD news - WE'RE MARRIED!!!!!!!!)