The Day He Proposed

I love New Year's Eve...but for a different reason than most people, probably. New Year's Eve seven years ago is that day that Aaron proposed to me. 


I've told this "proposal" story numerous times (when I was a high school teacher, my students often asked to hear the story), but have never actually typed it out...so here it goes :) (Hopefully I'm remembering all of the details correctly...I really should have written this down seven years ago!)


Seven years ago, Aaron and I had been dating for about a year and a half. It had been a fun and exciting--but also trying--time, as we both had a lot of maturing and growing to do, but despite all of the things we had to "work through," I knew from our very first date (and I'm pretty sure Aaron did, too) that I wanted to marry him. So throughout that year and a half, I knew that Aaron would probably ask me to marry him, but I didn't know when or how or where. 


The proposal story actually starts seven years ago at Christmas. We went to my Grandpa and Grandma's house to celebrate Christmas, and while there, my cousin Nate asked if I would be willing to house-sit for him, as he was going to be traveling for a week over New Year's. He had a few pets that would need taken care of. I readily agreed, thinking it would be so much fun to spend part of my college break staying at his quaint house by Foster Park in Fort Wayne. I knew Aaron would come up and visit me a lot, too, when he wasn't working, and we could take lots of walks in Foster Park and stuff like that. 


So the morning of New Year's Eve, I was at Nate's house, taking care of his dogs, doing some reading, and just relaxing. Aaron called me and said, "Hey...you know we were going to go to that New Year's Eve party tonight?" (We had been planning it with some of our friends for awhile). I said yes and he said that he changed his mind, and instead he would just come up to Fort Wayne and we could go out on a date together instead. I was surprised--I thought he was looking forward to being with his friends that night--but I agreed immediately :) I loved spending time with just him! I told him, though, that I was wearing sweats and a sweatshirt at the moment! Since I was planning on coming back to Bluffton for the party that night, I didn't have any other clothes with me to wear if we went out to eat. He told me not to worry,  he would take care of it. 


So I spent the day at Nate's house, and around suppertime, Aaron showed up. He said he had gone to my parents' house and had brought me everything I would need for that evening. He brought me some really warm clothes to wear outside and then a dress and dress shoes for later. I was impressed! He said I would need to wear the warm clothes first. At this point, I was starting to suspect that maybe tonight was the night he would propose to me, but I couldn't be sure...


I got all bundled up and we went to Headwater's Park to go ice skating. It was snowing, but just a little bit, and it was so beautiful! We had never been ice skating together before, and we had so much fun trying to stay upright and laughing and sometimes falling down. I started to get nervous while we were ice skating that he was going to propose right there on the ice...I knew that if he stopped and got on one knee, I would never be able to stay balanced enough to hear him out :) I also started worrying that if he stopped to propose, the other ice skaters would run us over. But he didn't propose then, so I wouldn't have needed to worry :) 


After we were done ice skating, we walked around the park for awhile in the snow, and then we headed back to Nate's house. Aaron told me to put the dress on, and he got all dressed up, too (a rarity for him!). Then he took me to Cork 'n' Cleaver--a restaurant that I had never been to before. By this time it was about 10:00 at night (he had made reservations), and we ate a really late, delicious dinner there. It was probably the fanciest place I had ever eaten, and I thought for sure he was going to propose throughout the whole meal. But we got to the end of the meal, he paid the bill, and we headed out the door. No proposal yet :)


We headed back to Nate's house again, and when we got there (now right around midnight), Aaron told me that he had a couple of late Christmas presents for me. This really didn't seem odd to me, because Aaron is SUCH a gift-giver. He is and was constantly giving me gifts. He sat me down at the kitchen table and gave me a long wrapped box. He said that he was going to go downstairs to the basement, and I was supposed to open the gift upstairs by myself, and then after I had opened it, I was to come downstairs. (By this time, I figured a proposal HAD to be coming.)


He went downstairs, and I opened the present. Inside the box, were 12 roses. Attached to each rose was an envelope. Inside each envelope was a card. I opened the first envelope, and written on the card was a reason that he loved me. I opened the next card, and the same thing--"I love you because..." Each of the twelve envelopes had a card in it, and each card told me a reason that Aaron loved me. (I still have all of the cards :) They are so so sweet.)


After I had opened the twelfth one, I was SO nervous to go downstairs. I stood up, shaking a bit I'm sure, and made my way toward the stairway. As I looked down, I saw rose petals scattered all over the steps. I walked down, and Aaron was standing in the middle of the room, with rose petals scattered everywhere on the floor around him. He also had about 20 candles lit all over the basement. I remember specifically thinking, "These kinds of scenes only happen in movies. They don't happen in real life!" He asked me if I wanted to dance with him, and he turned on "our song" on the stereo ("The Luckiest" by Ben Folds, which we ended up walking down the aisle to in our wedding). 


After the dance, he got down on one knee, and with tears in his eyes, he told me how much he loved me and that he wanted me to be his wife. With tears streaming down my cheeks, I said a very enthusiastic "yes!" He put a gorgeous ring on my finger,

(he has good taste, doesn't he?)


and we were engaged!
(If anyone is curious as to why I don't have this ring anymore, I'd love to tell you about how Aaron and I felt convicted to simplify a few years ago and get cheap rings instead...just ask me about it :))


So that is why New Year's Eve will always be special to me :) It is the anniversary of the day that the Lord gave me such an amazing gift--Aaron to be my husband. He has truly been the man of my dreams--a better husband than I could have ever hoped for.