High School to Housewife....Proposals in the Dark.

I am about to share with you the story of Mr Wonderful's proposal. We had been dating about 1.5 years and I was more than ready, I was fast approaching 18 and I could not wait to spend my life with him! I had graduated a year early from high school and attended 1 year at a community college. I really only wanted to be a wife and mother to his babies. That was all I ever dreamed about growing up, I had no desires to be a working woman or even get a degree (to this day I still have no idea what I would be interested in if and when I do go back to college). I am madly in love and feelin' impatient I kept thinking...."I know he has a ring, I am pretty sure, or at least I think so." I am just waiting, and waiting and waiting some more...and as you all know I was born with a devastating birth defect....I was missing my ability to be patient.

So it was my 18th B-Day and Mr Wonderful took me out for a beautiful night. He drove me up on a secluded ridge (I still have no idea if this was public or private land) anyway here we are driving out onto the point of a rugged ridge just as the sun is starting to set. It is bumpy and rough and uncomfortable.....the suspense is killing me...I think to myself.. "Is this the night? Is he going to propose, something is up here?"

Mr Wonderful finally parked his pick-up and turned on some romantic music (I should mention that he had this amazing sound system complete with subwoofer that I particularly found personally moving in a raging hormone kinda way). Anyway the music is set, the sun is falling, he gets out some stemware fancy glasses from his toolbox somewhere (do you KNOW what kind of yucky, dirty stuff they normally keep in men's truck toolboxes?....ignore that) anyway he has sparkling cider. He pours me some and we take a nice stroll towards the sunset glasses in hand.....the light is beautiful and romantic. Again that darn suspense is getting to me....actually it never went away. All the questions flooding my mind. "Is he really going to propose?" I think to myself "I am 18 now, it is safe to go ahead anytime, really." We chat, we laugh, I start to get impatient, I try not to let Mr Wonderful know just how devoid of patience I really am. The suspence I tell you.

Just then he turns to face me and gently strokes my cheek and looks deep into my eyes......(my knees go all wiggly) he starts to say how much he loves me and how much I have given him and how his heart needs me to be complete and just how much he looks forward to a life with me. With that he dropped down on his knee and took out a velvet box and asked me so sweetly with tears in his eyes to marry him. I of course said "Yes, I love you of course YES!!!" He put the ring on and I was so excited, we hugged and over his shoulder I was trying to hold up my hand to see the ring....but by this time it is dark...too dark to even really SEE the ring! I had no idea how big it was, the shape of it or anything! So I casually mentioned we better get back to the truck because it is dark and I am a big weany in the dark.

The minute we got to the truck I bailed into the jockey box whipped out the flashlight and gave it a click......."ah finally some light around here.".....I gave it a glance and WOW what a sparkler, it was more than I could have dreamed of! I mean here I was 18, young naive, and so hopeful. It ended up that he had done a fabulous job picking out my ring all on his own...he only asked me a few vauge questions and went with it. He ended up getting me an oval cut, slightly bigger than a half carat solitare!!! I was grinning from ear to ear. I was completely in love with my man and all the way home I kept trying out the word "fiance"....I love that word.

There is more to the story, specifically how my parents reacted to the news as well as what comes after an engagement like wedding plans, weddings, honeymoons (yes plural, but it is not all it is cracked up to be), and babies.....lots of sweet babies.

So ladies tell your sons, "If you love her.......don't propose in the dark!" Unless of course you want to test the true depth of her love.

This was our engagement picture.