Our engagement story...

In honor of the link up at the lovely Betty Beguiles blog.

We were separated high school sweethearts; he was my first love, at 15 years old, and it had lasted all of two months. We broke up; then I moved away; and we grew up a little in our separate corners. In the fall of my fourth year of college, out of the blue I got the idea (inspiration? prompting?) to try my ex-boyfriend's old phone number, long distance, one unoccupied evening. I could hardly believe I remembered it correctly. And he was there--busy, but could he call me back a little later?

We ended up talking for hours that night, and the next night, and several nights after for about a week. We made plans for a date. I would catch a ride with friends going to an out-of-town game, and he would drive to meet me. We went to dinner, and spent a lot of time just driving and talking. When he brought me back to my host's home, he and I fell asleep on the loveseat in the living room. The last thing I remember him saying to me that night was, "It's scary, isn't it? Thinking that maybe this is it." The meant-to-be.

We did almost everything backwards from then on. He went shopping for a diamond that week. He drove three hours every time he could to visit me. He saw me off to a women's retreat/vocation weekend I had scheduled. A few days after that we had our second "first kiss" (a date we still celebrate). We had discussed marriage, and agreed that he would not propose until April or so, after I returned from a semester abroad. But--rashly or not--we decided after another week or two that the time was right and it didn't make sense to wait. The day before my birthday (which that year was on Thanksgiving) he got on both knees and asked me to marry him. We drove into the night to my grandmother's house to spend the holiday and tell our families (his en route to mine) the news. I remember passing through Atlanta in the middle of the night and totally stealing "their song"--my aunt and uncle's song, "Happy Together" by the Turtles. We called an oldies radio station to request it, and they played it with a shout-out to our brand new engagement.

There's more. Of course there's more. But that's beyond the scope of this little link up.

Go visit Betty Beguiles for more great engagement stories!