Every Girl Gets Engaged and has a Brithday the Same Weekend, Right?

I almost made these two different posts; my engagement deserves its own, right?  But the timing was too intertwined.  So here we are.  

Danny and I had looked at rings, decided on one, and it was getting sized.  Danny, NOT one who likes to keep a secret, made it clear that as soon as he had it back he was going to propose.  He also said he didn't want to do it on my birthday, nor did he want to do it on the March 19th, as on that day in 2010, I had left Cristian.  So on the 17th, when he told me he was going to pick up the ring, I knew the proposal had to happen on the 18th, which was a Friday.  But let me back up...

On the 16th, I went to dinner with a couple of my roommates and girlfriends for my birthday.  I chose Johnny Rockets because sometimes, a girl just needs a good burger and fries.  I'm pretty classy.  Anyway, it was really fun.  We ate, we laughed, the girls probed about what my status with Danny was and I lied through my teeth like a champion.  We had a sweet, hapless server who was probably about 16, and on his first week of his first job.  It was precious.  

 

The manager took a bad, blurry picture of us, and my roommate Jenny got a great picture of the manager singing me "Happy Birthday" with gusto.  (For the record, I hate that song being sung to me.  It's awkward).

 

Then Bryana and Katy made my night by striking some great poses with the light pole while telling some story I don't even remember, that apparently had inspired those poses in the first place.  But all I can say is, this is why we are friends. 

 

 

It was a good moment, and a great night.  

Friday, March 18th.  I pretty much knew I was going to get engaged that night.  I barely made it through the day.  Danny met me at work and took me to dinner at a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant.  Again, we are totally classy.  Only gourmet grilled cheese for us! Seriously though, it was so good.  Then we went on a walk.  I had no idea where we were going, but the suspense was killing me.  We ended up at Thomas Circle Park, which is really more of a roundabout with a big statue in the middle of a large intersection in downtown DC.  

 

But on two corners of that intersection are two old, beautiful churches.  It is Danny's favorite spot in the city because he loves to look at those churches.  I just knew it was going to happen any minute, and was all of a sudden nervous!  We hugged, kissed, Danny got quiet and pensive; I could tell he was gearing up to ask. 

He opened his mouth, and said, "Do you want to keep walking?"  

???!!!!

"Sure....?"  (He later claimed it was the traffic and general busy-ness of the place in the latter part of the evening rush hour that made him change his mind at the last second. I would also say it had something to do with the construction worker 20 feet away eating his dinner).

So we kept walking. It grew quieter as we found a random street and ducked into a small courtyard leading into an apartment building.  All I know is it was across the street from the National Geographic building.  We

sat on a bench for a few minutes.  Danny got on one knee, and just very simply asked me to marry him.  I looked him in the eye and said, "With my whole heart." 

So simple, and so lovely.  

As we were post-proposal canoodling, a pregnant woman walked by and toward the building.  We stopped her right as she was about to walk in and asked her to take a picture. She very hesitantly, semi-irritatedly agreed.  As soon as I told her we just got engaged, she got REALLY excited and took lots of great pictures of us, exactly the way we wanted.  Largely un-posed.  

 

 

We walked back through the city, me staring at my ring, of course.  As we crossed one crosswalk, a Muslim woman took out her ear buds to yell, "Congratulations!"  Ha!  Was I that obvious?

Kind of obnoxious, but I had to for some of my girlfriends.

We got back to my house and the calls began.  First the parents, then the siblings.  It took the rest of the night.  Then, we finally posted a picture on social media and things exploded from there.  Who knew hundreds of people would be so excited about two kids in their 30's getting hitched?  :-) We actually did feel very loved from all corners of our world.  Facebook and Instagram are fun that way.  Either way, I will never forget that night.  We were so happy, but mostly, relieved that we could finally just be open about what we had known for a few weeks already.   It just felt right, and like it was really time to be engaged.  

I had taken longer than Danny to be ready.  I was scared of the commitment.  Committing again to marriage after my experience the first time around was no small leap for me.  When it came down to it, it wasn't so much questioning whether Danny and I were a good fit for each other.  We worked well, and we both knew it.  It was more the whole concept of marriage again.  It really took me a while to wrap my brain around it again and not be deep-down terrified.  It was almost like a mental step I couldn't take yet.  And in the meantime, poor Danny was just trying to gauge where I was on a given day and meet me there, but I knew he was ready.  But after some back and forth on my part, and knowing I couldn't do that forever, I finally received some beautiful personal revelation that gave me the extra confirmation and courage I needed to take that leap.   And I have never looked back.  It's amazing how the Lord knows us, and knows just what we need.  He knew I needed to be sure this was right and it was time.  And I'm so grateful.

Thank goodness, because my mom was beside herself, just waiting.  "It's about time!!!"  Ha!

Quick circle-back: finished out the weekend on my birthday with a double birthday celebration with my roommate Pam, who's birthday was only a couple of days from mine.  Desserts and friends and my new, handsome fiance.  What could be better? Nothing, I say. Nothing.