Seven years ago

Seven years ago today, Jason asked me to marry him.

I’m so very thankful for that day. He is the best man I’ve ever met. Truly. I thought I’d take a few minutes today to tell our engagement story.

We met on the internet. I’m still a little embarrassed to admit that for some reason, although it’s become a lot more common these days. We met in IRL (in real life) for the first time about 5 months after we started talking. It was an amazing first visit.

I knew from that first hug at the airport that I wanted to marry him. It just hit me in such a powerful way that afternoon. I had always heard that “you just know”, but I never believed it. I’m not a very romantic person. But that afternoon, in the middle of BNA, my whole life was irrevocably changed. I Knew.

Of course I didn’t tell him that. I kept my cool. Okay that’s a lie. Neither of us was remotely cool that visit. It was awkward and comfortable at the same time. I still have a hard time coming up with words to describe it.

We spent a couple of magical days together. And yes I realize just how corny that sounds. But it was. So there.

The day after he got home, he started making plans for our next visit. We were discussing dates and flight information when I made a an offhand comment along the lines of “Well maybe instead of spending money on flights, you should save up for a big rock.”.

And there was a pause.

I cringed. omg had I really said that??? Seriously?

“Really?”, he said (typed actually, we were on IM)

ummm… maybe?

And thus began our talks about getting engaged.

A month later, we had our second visit. I knew that it was going to be The Visit. I knew he had bought a ring and had a plan. I just didn’t know what the plan was.

I thought maybe he would propose at the airport. Nope.

Maybe at dinner that night. Nope.

Maybe the next morning. No, not then.

At this point I was starting to get worried. Maybe he had changed his mind…

The afternoon of the second day we decided to go to one of the places we had been to on our first visit. We had taken our first picture together on a bridge in downtown Nashville overlooking the river.

We wanted to go to the same bridge and get another picture of ourselves. It was the 3rd of July and downtown was pretty busy. There were policemen and other people starting to set up for the fireworks the next day. We found the spot on the bridge where we had taken the picture and snapped another one.

That’s when he got down on one knee. He gave me a card and said some words. I honestly don’t know what they were because I think all the blood in my body rushed to my head and I couldn’t hear anything. I’m sure it was a lovely speech though.

Then he asked me to marry him. I, of course said yes. More like “Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!!!!!”

Every once in a while we have to take off our wedding rings briefly for swimming and such. We take turns proposing when we put them back on. My answer is always “Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!!!!!”.