Nathan & I had been dating
for three and half years by the time he proposed. IT WAS TIME! HAHA In his
defense I had said our entire relationship that I did not want to be engaged
much less married until I was finished with school, and he heard every word of
that statement. As time went on my feelings for waiting to be engaged changed
but Nathan new me and honored my initial desire of waiting. Such a sweetheart!
So, with all of that being said here is our engagement story.
It all started during the month
of November. If you know me you know my Christmas tree goes up the week before
Thanksgiving and I go all out on decorating. Mesh, big elaborate ornaments,
ribbon, the whole nine yards! I also do the same with Nathan’s tree. The first
year I did his tree I went to my favorite Christmas décor store, Trim The Tree,
and bought all the trimmings (spent too much money according to Nathan) and
have assembled his tree every year since. Well, this year I will be honest, I
was bitter. I was graduating in December, was having a hard time finding a job
in northeast Arkansas and new I could move south and have the job of my desire.
But, I did not want to move because that would put distance in our relationship
and quite frankly I new without a doubt Nathan was the love of my life and that
I wanted to spend forever with him...I just needed him to ask me because I knew
my answer was yes! So, I decorated my tree per usual BUT I did not put up
Nathan’s tree much less decorate it. Cue bitterness.
Thanksgiving came and went. My
tree was lit every evening while Nathan’s house remained treeless (and he could
careless)! December began with me still stressing over finding a job, then I
graduated, and then came the week of the engagement. On Tuesday of that week
while on the phone with Nathan I informed him that since we had planned to take
Adalynn to the Little Rock game for the Razorback Men’s Basketball team on
Saturday I had every intention of going to stay with my parents in White Hall
on Friday and he was welcomed to join me. He simply said ok. Wednesday nothing
odd occurs and no more conversation about the weekend takes place (little did I
know Nathan was in White Hall asking for my dad and moms blessing. I thought he
was duck hunting). Thursday he calls and says. “Instead of going to White Hall
Friday how about we stay in Jonesboro and go see The Lights of The Delta
display in Blytheville then come back and have dinner at my house and we can
put up my Christmas tree? And we can do like normal except I know we aren’t exchanging
gifts this year (Nathan & I bought for foster children this year instead of
each other) but you can still wrap all my Christmas presents for me. Plus, if
we stay Friday in Jonesboro I can coach the basketball game Saturday morning.”
All seemed normal to me so I agreed to stay in Jonesboro Friday night but I
refused to put his Christmas tree up (I was still bitter). Plus, I had been
telling him how badly I wanted him to see the lights display and I thought it
was thoughtful of him to remember that and make plans to make it happen.
On Friday I went to lunch with
Nathan and that is when my weird feeling began. He seemed different but still
not too odd. Before we left lunch I made the comment that we needed to have a
plan for that evening. I offered to have dinner cooked when he got off work
before we left for Blytheville. He said no thanks that we needed to get to
Blytheville so that we wouldn’t have to wait to see the light display, but that
we would do dinner after and then put up his Christmas tree. Then he started
grinning and laughing. I of course began laughing and asked him what in the
world was so funny and reminded him that I was not
putting up his Christmas tree. While staring over my shoulder he says, “Nothing.
I’m just looking at the tree.” So I turn around to see a tree in the restaurant
that has one little ornament on it. Weird. We leave lunch and go about our days
except I call my parents and ask, “Is something going on because Nathan is
acting SO weird!” Of course they act as if they know nothing and I of course
believe them. 5:15 roles around, which is the time Nathan is suppose to pick me
up and he has still not arrived. This is unusual because he is always ten
minutes early. I call him and he sounds panicked! Duh, I begin thinking he is
for sure proposing and something with his plans have gone wrong. So, I call my
parents, again! (I am currently laughing at myself as I type this thinking that
I truly thought my parents would tell me “Hey, yeah, Nathan is going to ask you
to marry him tonight!”) Once again, my parents act calm and say they know
nothing. Nathan shows up around 5:30 and we head for Blytheville. We ended up
having to wait for 40 minutes or so to get to the lights display and once we
started driving through the display it dawns on me that he may propose in the
lights. Within seconds I have concocted this idea that he had a display made in
lights that said, “Will you marry me” or something. And I genuinely thought
this was a possibility because we know people affiliated with the lights
display who could possibly make this happen.
As we are going through the
lights I’m thinking any minute he is going to propose, so I text my friend
Ashley and tell her my thoughts. She responds with something like “you never
know”. As we are coming to the end of the lights display there is a huge “Happy
Holidays” in lights and I made the comment that I cannot stand that phrase
& want to get rid of that display (no worries, I did not touch that display
and the “Merry Christmas” display came right after it). As we approach these
two displays Nathan pulls over on the driving path and my heart stopped! This.
Was. It. I slowly turn my head to look at him and he nods his head back towards
my direction, so I slowly turn my head to look out the window thinking in
lights I will read “Will you marry me?” and to my surprise I see “Happy
Holidays”. Ugh! I quickly turn to him and say, “Really!” to which he responds, “Here
is your opportunity to get rid of it.” I made no response and we leave the
display. I text my friend Ashley the sad text of “no proposal in lights.” Womp,
Womp.
Staying true to myself I
proclaim on our ride back to Jonesboro that I am starving and that it’s past
8:00 p.m. Trying to not act unusual Nathan responds with “I bought stuff to
make spaghetti when we get back but we can stop at Sonic if you want to.” I
quickly ask him when he bought stuff to make spaghetti and he says after work, which
then makes since why he was late picking me up. Thus, bringing disappointment
to the thought that he was proposing (yes, I was still hoping he would propose
that night). Oh, and let me not forget to mention that he brought up putting
his tree up AGAIN! I thought by now he had realized I was not putting that tree
up! Anyway, like a true Sonic lover I say yes to Sonic. As we are pulling back
into Jonesboro he turns to get on the interstate instead of going through town
where Sonic is. I immediately announce “Food!” and he laughs. He says, “Let me
take you to your house and while you gather all of the things to wrap my
present with I will head home and start dinner, and while I’m cooking you can
put the tree up.” To which I respond in a rather smarty pants tone of voice, “How
can I put your tree up if it is in your attic and you are cooking? I am not
going in that attic.” Cue Nathan laughing. He responds with “The tree is not in
the attic, I took it down at lunch.” At lunch? Yeah, he went home after our
lunch date that day and took it down. I then realized that despite my
reluctance to put that tree up I felt like I had to since he went out of his
way to get it down. Plus, he must have really wanted the tree up because normally
he could careless if it was up.
He drops me off at my house and if
I am being honest I was in a terrible mood. I just knew he was going to propose
in the lights AND I didn’t get Sonic...I was beyond hungry at this point! What’s
a girl to do...call her mom (again)! By this time it’s after 9:00 p.m. so when
I call my mom she thinks I am about to tell her I am engaged! Instead she got a
grumpy daughter whining about how weird her boyfriend was acting and how hungry
she was. I talked to my mom all the way to Nathan’s house and as I was ending
the conversation Nathan opens his front door to hear me say, “I love you, Bye.”
He has wide eyes and says, “Who were you talking to?” I tell him my mom and he
then wants to know what she was doing, etc. Poor guy thought my mom had ruined
the surprise. Once he realizes my mom played it off well (except we learn later
that my parents became concerned after that phone call that Nathan had gotten
cold feet) he shows me the Christmas tree box and says dinner will be ready
soon. He helps me assemble the tree then goes back to cooking while I fluff the
tree. Christmas music is playing in the background, the fireplace is on, and I
feel my bad mood trying to turn to a pleasant mood but then I remind myself of
the disappointment of no proposal in the lights. We eat dinner and then Nathan says
we should decorate the tree together. So we do just that except thanks to my
bitterness (it’s become embarrassing at this point) I refuse to put any mesh or
elaborate decorations on the tree. We simply put small Christmas ornaments on
the tree. It took a total of five minutes compared to my normal hour to hour
and half decorating.
Once we finish decorating the
tree I take a seat on his couch and he comes to sit beside me. He plays on his
computer for a minute and then asks me if I wanted to watch a video he made
earlier that week. I asked if it was a duck hunting video (remember I thought
he was duck hunting on Wednesday not asking for my parents blessing) and he
responds no while laughing. This video starts playing with a song that is
significant to us and all these pictures start appearing on the screen--pictures
of us from our 3½ years of dating, our families, our friends; our memories.
Half way through the video I realize this is how he is going to propose and I
start panicking because I do not do surprises well and I start talking about
EVERY picture that pops up on the screen! The video ends and he simply looks at
me and says, “Merry Christmas!” and gives me a kiss. SERIOUSLY!! At this point
I have no words to describe my frustration with the events of that night. I
reply with “Merry Christmas” and he gets up and goes to another room. I start
telling myself to get over myself that he probably made that video as a
homemade Christmas gift since we didn’t exchange gifts, etc. As I am telling
myself these factors here comes Nathan into the living room with a 5x5 white
box. Immediately, I get mad! I start telling him that I knew he would still buy
me a Christmas gift when we had agreed not too blah, blah, blah. The whole time
he has the cutest grin on his face while laughing at me. He interrupts my rant
to inform me that it was not a gift for me that it was an ornament for the
tree. Oh! Ok! I thought this said ornament was going to be a razorback ornament
because for 3 years I have been telling him I wanted to do his tree in all
razorbacks but for 3 years he has refused letting me do so because he says it
could cost to much (and if I am being honest he is right about that).
I open the ornament to find a
big green ornament with the words “Will You Marry Me?” on it (Nathan had this
made at my favorite Christmas décor store, Trim The Tree, which is owned by
some dear friends). Let the Maegan cannot breathe and waterfall of tears
commence! I look over at him to see him getting down on one knee to which he
shared some words (I’m not sure of everything he said because I was to busy
crying) and then I heard him ask me THE question to which I did say YES and
began hugging him. Poor guy eventually had to push me back and say, “Do you
want this ring?” HAHA Of course I said yes!
 |
| The ornament! |
After I had time to think about
what all had just taken place everything became so clear. Nathan wanted US to
put the tree up together, cook dinner, and have Christmas carols and the
fireplace going just like we will do in the future in our home as husband and
wife. (Yes, I am crying again reliving this moment)
We spent the next hour calling
our parents and siblings and sharing the exciting news! Our siblings had no
clue and it was so fun to see their reactions via FaceTime. My parents were
relieved to learn Nathan had in fact not gotten cold feet and his parents were
just as excited!
We are so excited about this
season of life and feel very blessed by Gods grace in crossing our two paths so
that we can become one! Here’s to #happilyeverwaldrip starting July 18, 2015!
 |
| Our first picture as an engaged couple! |
