We started off the morning by eating chocolate chip pancakes that Michael made in the shape of hearts :) This was so very sweet! He had to special order the chocolate chips the night before from some friends of ours. Then we started on the road. I thought for sure that we were going to Charlotte since it's pretty much my favorite city, but we drove right through Charlotte and kept on chugging along just talking and enjoying each others company. It was really a very enjoyable drive. I kept looking for signs along the road to give me hints of cities around the area, and there were NONE! We ended up turning onto this country road, and then a private gravel driveway! I looked at Michael and asked, "Where are we? This is NOT a city!" He assured me we were going to a city that day, and then asked if this gravel driveway looked familiar. I looked at him, and was like, Uh...no, I've never been here in my life! So we drove down and passed some older houses....and then I saw the sign! Welcome to Grace Haven Ministries! I couldn't believe we were actually there!
Grace Haven ministries is where Michael and I had our first real conversation. We were on our church's youth ministry tour, and Grace Haven was the first stop of the weekend. They had a little pond there with a paddle boat. Michael and I got into the paddle boat, not really knowing each other, and soon found out that the paddles were all tangled in the rope, and they were not moving anywhere, and then we found out that the rudder was broken! We were stranded on this pond for quite some time, and we had really good conversations. It was really the beginning of our friendship together! Michael and I have talked before about going back to places that had real significance to us and taking pictures with my nice camera, and he had told me to bring it along, so I thought that is exactly what we were doing!!!! I was so excited to be back there, and relive some of the memories made.
We got out of the car and walked around and checked the place out. Not much had changed. Then we started walking towards the pond where two paddle boats were in the grass. We looked at both of them, and picked out the exact same one that we were in years ago! The rope was no longer tangled, but the rudder was still broken. Michael used a shovel as a paddle, and we got in and started paddling around. It was a pretty warm day in July, but it felt nice to be outside. I was just laughing and enjoying our time together and taking lots of pictures with my new little camera. It was a lot of fun...and then I realized why we were there.
Michael started off the conversation by saying, "So I figured it out that it was seven years ago that we were here, and it's the seventh month, and today is the seventeenth." When he said this, in my mind, I was thinking, Well that is the perfect day for something really special to happen!! I immediately looked at his pockets to see if I could see a box, but there was nothing there. Then he proceeded to tell me about how he's really enjoyed our relationship even though we've had a lot of ups and downs. He's looking forward to many more years of being together. He told me of how he likes that I challenge him, and how he's enjoyed growing together these past few years, spiritually and emotionally. He said many other sweet things, which made me teary-eyed. Then, he got down on one knee in the paddle boat, pulled out a small box from his pocket, and opened it and asked if I would marry him. I looked at him, and with tears in my eyes, said, "Yes, yes I will"
I looked at the ring and it was beautiful! It was exactly what I wanted. I hadn't really given Michael any direction on what I really wanted, only little hints of what I didn't like. He did an excellent job but was worried that it would be too small because of the concern the lady at the jewelers store had about my finger size. He put it on and it fit! In fact, it was a little big! I took so many pictures after this, I wanted to catch everything! Michael told me that this was just the beginning of our day and that we still had other surprises waiting for me!
We paddled to the shore, and I took tons more pictures of us the scenery, really anything that I could! We took some really sweet pictures together, and I really cherish them. We got back in the car after Michael went to thank the owners of the land and when it started to rain. I'm glad the rain held off while we were in the paddle boat. We started off down the road again, back tracking a little, and Michael asked if I were hungry. I was a little at this point. We drove into Greensboro and ate at the Ruby Tuesdays at the mall there. Ruby Tuesdays was our first date almost 3 years ago. We enjoyed our meal, but Michael had warned me not to eat too much because we were going to have a nice big dinner! We got back in the car and Michael drove just about a mile and our next destination was the Greensboro Museum! We parked and got out and went up the step to the door. There was a sign on the door to ring the doorbell. We did but there was no answer. I must admit that I was a little disappointed, so we walked around the side of the building, and then discovered the FRONT of the building! It was huge!!! We walked in and it was beautiful inside.
Michael explained that he knew that growing up, my family would always like to make fun educational stops along the way, and he wanted to do the same thing for me. The museum was pretty awesome! It had maybe like 5 other people in the whole place and was huge! Part of it was closed for remodeling, but I don't think we would have made it all the way through it had it been opened. Photography was also allowed, so we took tons of crazy fun pictures! I found out that Greensboro used to be known as Jug town, because of it's pottery. I love pottery and it was all very pretty! The museum closed at 5, so we stayed until we had to leave and then got back in Michael's car. He punched something into the GPS and wouldn't let me see it, and by this point I was all turned around and had no idea where we were or what direction we were headed.
I did see a sign for 220, but we were in NC, so it couldn't have been the same one that went right by my house! Michael and I talked a lot and joked around in the car. He told me that he wanted to listen to Chris Daughtery's I'm going home song on his Ipod. I tried to find it on there, but I couldn't....oh well. Then we saw an older white building that was a restaurant called the Homeplace, and we have a homeplace restaurant in our hometown too. I thought that was pretty cool, and then I had my "Aha!" moment! I recognized a little restaurant that was only like 40 minutes away from house!!! I was so excited and I asked Michael, "Are we going home!??!?!" He smiled at me and said, YES!
I was so excited, because I hadn't been home very much at all, because of my internship, and I really wanted my family to be apart of our engagement, just not there the moment that it happened. I had wanted to call them earlier and Michael told me that I should wait and just the enjoy the time with him, and it made sense....since I was going to see them! We got home and took some pictures of our whole family. It was fun, and then they took us out to eat to 6/11 steakhouse, which is a really good restaurant!
Michael spent the night at my house, since his family was in Mexico, and we went to church the next day. We got to tell our Youth Pastor what had happened just the day before, and asked him to marry us! He was so happy for us :) And I got to tell a lot of our really close friends. I loved their reactions! They were so happy for us and excited just like us :) We had lunch after church with my family, and then we had to go back to Greenville. I had to work the next day. Michael did such a great job with planning the whole thing, and he took a lot of thought into what was special to us. He totally surprised me, which is a hard thing to do since I'm so nosy.
July 17, 2010 is a day that I'll never forget.
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