A Shower of Roses...

To continue my theme from last Friday: After dating for three years, things began changing in my life. I completed an internship that I had picked up during college. I got a full time job and graduated from the University. I moved out of my college house and things were looking pretty good. God had blessed me yet again without me even knowing what to ask for and helped me to find a good apartment close to my good job and rooming with a good friend. The guy I lived with had been my roommate in my college house, but he was preparing to graduate as well and decided to separate from the college lifestyle. With the approach of summer, I knew something had to change. I gathered up my courage and went to a jewelry store. After hours of research I had the perfect diamond picked out, but I just couldn’t find the setting I liked. I finally just drew it out on a piece of paper and said, “Can you do this?” The lady at the jewelry store checked with their jeweler and told me it would be ready in two weeks.

TWO WEEKS!!! I had a lot of planning to do. I knew this had to be big, so I spent all of my free time over then next two weeks putting it together. Two weeks was the feast of Our Lady of Mount Caramel, so I knew that that was the day. I had been trying to find a unique way of asking and finally came up with the idea to create a little book that would do most of the work for me. I spent hours using Microsoft Paint and Word to put together a little cartoon book that told the story of a Koala from the city and a Rhino from the country who met and fell in love and got married. On the last two pages, it had spelled out in big letters “Will you marry me?” I took it to the local Kinko’s the night before July 16th. They said it wouldn’t be ready until 10AM. She worked that day until 1, so I knew I didn’t have a lot of time. I began the morning by sneaking over to her apartment after she had left for work and left a treasure hunt of notes. Then I went to pick up the ring. Next I went to ask her dad (I’ve always been bad about waiting until the last minute on things).

She thought I was heading out of town for the weekend, so it would be a complete surprise. The treasure hunt at her apartment led her to a rose with a clue attached. The final clue asked her to feed my fish for me. I had told her that my roommate would be home, but that I only trusted her to feed them (he knew what the plan was). So she arrived at my apartment to find another rose and a clue telling her that one rose was for her and one was for St. Therese. She called me as she was approaching the Parish to which we now belong, and I had to pretend to be driving without lying to her. In the front pew I left the book I had made and sat behind a pillar with a rose in my hand, the ring in my pocket, and a prayer in my heart. It seemed like forever before she arrived and placed the rose by the statue of St. Therese. This was nothing new for us as I often gave her 2 roses (one for her and one for St. Therese). However, when she knelt in the pew to pray, she noticed the book on the front pew with a little sticky note on it spelling out her name. She picked it up and began reading while I watched from around the corner. When I saw her get to then end and read the second to last page, I snuck up right beside her. She read the last page and looked around and saw me. Jumping out of the pew she gave me a huge hug and said in a hushed whisper, “YES! YES!”

I pushed back for a second got down on my knee and said, “Kati, you mean the world to me and I wanted to be right here in front of the Holy Family (their statues were right there) and ask you if you would like try to be a holy family with me?” I then told her to take a minute to think and pray and I would wait outside for the answer. She knelt down for just a minute and then joined me outside just glowing. We went to mass that evening, talked to the priest afterward, got a special engagement blessing, and then spent the rest of the evening telling our family and friends the news.

It was a great day and even though the “Yes” came from her, it was definitely another blessing from God.

And now I’m back to my mission…