So I'm currently in the process of filling out this questionnaire thing a lady from Drew's church sent me. It's for a wedding shower they are throwing for me (us?) in Iowa in a few weeks. I'm suuuuper exciting because Jasper and I will be going back to Iowa for at least a week- probably more like 9-10 days. I love it when we can make it back for more than a few days. And during that time I will have TWO wedding showers and my bachelorette party!
Anyway one of the questions was about how we got engaged. I love the story so much I thought I'd share it here.
It happened last may, in Ljusdal, Sweden. Ljusdal is the town I grew up in. I lived there till I was 11 or 12- when we moved back to the states. We were studying abroad for the semester (Drew, Jasper and myself) and had a made our 2nd trip up to visit old friends, my grandma and uncle and cousins.
He had bought the ring 2 weeks before but wanted to wait until we were up in Ljusdal to propose. The whole week he was carrying it in his jacket pocket- once I got chilly and asked to borrow his fleece, he said no then he would be cold and told me it was my fault for wearing a dress when I knew the night was going to get chilly.I was a little annoyed at the time but it made sense later on! He had told my grandma(who doesnt speak a word of english) that he was going to propose and showed her the ring, and she was the only person who knew. She felt very special to be included. All week up in Ljusdal he kept asking me to go for a walk in my old neighborhood- but every time we went to go I invited others to go with us- so he kept missing his chance- and was getting quite frustrated with me for ruining the plans. Once he even asked me to go for a walk at 2 in the morning (the sun doesnt set in Sweden during the summer so it was bright out) but I said no because I didn’t want to wake up the people whose house we were staying at because they were sleeping in the living room right outside our door. Finally it was the day before we were leaving Ljusdal and he was running out of time. We were at my grandmas apartment sitting outside on tire swings. He asked me to come sit with him on the swing- while I was sitting there he pulled out the ring but I didnt even see because I was watching Jasper who was playing in the sandbox, making sure he didnt run out into the road. He sat there saying I was his best friend, how much he loved me, the best mother he could ask for for his son,couldn't wait to spend the rest of his life with me etc. etc. None of this caught me off guard since these are things he says to me frequently. He finally said “Darlene arent you even going to look at it!” And then I looked down at the ring in his hand and was speechless. He said its the only time he has ever seen me speechless. After I put the ring on(perfect fit!) I realized I hadn’t even said yes.
Maybe 2 minutes later my sister came outside with her camera to take pictures of the gardens (her and her boyfriend were in sweden visiting us for two weeks) and caught the moments right after on camera. Which I'm so glad she was there to do. Then I proceeded to call my mom in Iowa where I think it was 5 in the morning..whoops!
The only thing I wish is that I would have been wearing at least some sort of make up- but then again, he chose to propose to me looking like that, no make up, unwashed hair, wrinkly dress...Me.
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