From the very beginning of our relationship I told Jeremy that if he is ever going to propose to me it has to be something very special, unexpected and romantic. He fulfilled all of the prerequisites on August 7th of 2008. But before I tell of the actual proposal I should give a little background of this whole marriage thing.
We have talked about getting married well before we went to Russia (July 2008), and we decided that we would talk to my parents and ask for their blessing while we are there. And so we did. When mom and dad met Jeremy they absolutely fell in love with him (of course! Who wouldn’t?!). They loved him! They couldn’t really communicate with each other, because my folks don’t speak any English, and all my attempts to teach Jeremy how to speak Russian were not paying off.
So, one evening Jeremy started talking to my parents about how much he loved me, how he couldn’t live without me, and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. And then he asked them if they would bless our decision, and our future marriage. Of course I had to translate everything they were saying to each other, which made me blush numerous times. Mom and dad were very happy about the announcement of our marriage, but they said they were not surprised about it and they were actually suspecting something. I guess it was a give-away when I told them that Jeremy will be coming to Russia with me (never before in my life have I brought a guy home to meet my parents).
According to Russian tradition a couple gets engaged when a girl’s parents give a blessing to them. There are no engagement diamonds or rings or anything else of that nature, and Jeremy really liked that idea; however, I said that since we both live in America we should go by American rules and get me a big fat diamond!
Upon return from Russia-Land we went diamond-hunting…After trying a couple dozen rings I finally found THE ONE! The Crownover Jewelry shop in Warsaw was the last place we had to go for my rings (we have my wedding band already as well).
On Sunday, September 7th, Jeremy suggested that we would go on a bike ride, and have a picnic at Winona Lake. We have a spot there between a lake and a creek where we had a picnic last year. It’s one of the most beautiful places on a sunny day. I agreed, not knowing how many more nice days we had left for bike rides. So we packed a few snacks in a backpack and off we went. We rode our bikes for about an hour and a half before we landed on our spot. It was a very pleasant day, sunny, little clouds all over the bright blue sky! We munched on our snacks and then started looking for different shapes in the clouds, lying on a blanket we brought with us. After a while my back began to hurt, and Jeremy lovingly agreed on giving me a massage. The back massage slowly became an arm massage – from the shoulders to the very tips of each finger, from the right arm to the left. And then I felt that something cold touching my ring finger on the left hand. I got up to see what it was and right at that second Jeremy started to tell me of his love, and that he wanted to be with me forever and ever…all of a sudden my allergies overwhelmed my eyes and they started to water – I was not crying :) He asked me to marry him!!! As I was saying YES! the ring was on all the way…
The first person to know of our official American engagement was Jeremy’s mom. We called her before we took off on the bikes again. She, like my parents, was very excited about us getting married. I think she was more excited though about Jeremy finally finding somebody :)
That is the end of our proposal story; however, we started a new story of planning a wedding! And so far it has been lots of fun!
