ENGAGED!!!

As most of you already know from facebook or word of mouth, the rumors are true and I am engaged! My sweetheart has been mentioned many times on this blog, it's the lovely and beautifully amazing Makenna Barton. I want to share a little bit of our dating experience and how I proposed. Warning guys, it may get mushy, stop reading now if you can't handle it. :) We met on July 13th, 2008 at the annual pioneer day fireside/fireworks at Weber State, which the singles ward we were attending went to for an activity. After the fireside I started chatting with her about her iphone and we pretty much talked for the rest of the night, hardly noticing the fireworks. Her mom had made a delicious corn puff dessert previously to eat while we waited for the fireworks to begin and I used that as the way to get Mak's phone number. I asked her to text and/or email me the recipe so I could make it when I went back to Iowa. Makenna, being the kind, sweethearted girl that she is, readily agreed. Little did she know that it really was my way of asking for her number(I'm pretty smooth, I know.) ;) I found out later that she wanted to get my info also that night...so it turns out I wasn't quite as beguiling as I thought. I headed back to Iowa the following sunday and we kept in touch by all sorts of ways that we are so blessed to have these days: we texted, emailed, talked on the phone and used a web cam. It became clear really fast how things kept falling into place for us to start dating. For example, I originally was scheduled to drive home with Tyler Sudweeks the morning of the day I met Mak, but earlier that week I felt like I needed to stay an extra week at home so I bought a plane ticket to leave instead a week later...not really knowing why at the time. The way the web cam and phone dates worked out was another example. How we communicated so easily with each and became best friends was another.

We decided we officially started "dating" in September of 2008, after we had been on several phone and web cam dates and were talking regulary. Our dating situation was unique and so our relationship has been unique. We built our relationship on friendship and communication because that's all we had to begin with. I enjoyed sending and receiving packages to and from her, and it was nice being able to focus on the intense studies of med school but always looking forward to our conversations at night. One of the most memorable phone dates for me was when we got Naked togeter for the first time...the fruit juice of course. ;) We talked on the phone and went to the same store and got the same drink and just chatted as we sipped the juices in our cars. We'd do this to make it sorta feel like we were in the same place. Another time we both ordered Applebee's to go and then chatted on the phone as we went to pick it up and then brought the food back to our houses and used the web cam to chat as we ate. We then played games together the best we could in our little virtual world. It was so fun and I enjoyed every minute of it. We also would watch movies together by renting the same movie and starting it at exactly the same time, while we had the web cam on to see each others reactions and talk about the movie. It was different not being in the same room, but we had so much fun and made it work though we were 1000 miles apart.

I knew I was falling in love with her a short time after Christmas but didn't want to tell her for the first time over the phone. The months dragged on and sometime toward the end of April, I couldn't hold it in any longer and I clumsily but purposely said over the phone that I loved her. Expecting her to reply immediately with an I love you back, all I got was silence. Silence. My mind started racing and I thought I had blown it. After what seemed like eons, she finally and almost hesitantly(although she'll probably deny this) said I love you back. Phew, I thought to myself...at least she didn't hang up. I should let you know that I was extra nervous because this was the first time(besides my Mother and sisters of course) that I had told a girl I loved them. I always wanted to be absolutely sure it was true and not just hollow words. Well, our friendship and love continued to grow and seemed to accelerate when I came home for the summer. I mentioned in the previous post of how that played out. She ended up making the 26 hour drive with me back to Columbus(we stopped in Des Moines of course to spend the night) and it was en route to Columbus that I proposed.

We were staying in Sandusky, OH on Wednesday July 29th. We were dropping my buddy Nick and his family off to where he would be doing his rotations, because we had shared a moving truck with him to ease the expenses of moving. Sandusky lies on the southern shore of Lake Erie, one of the great lakes, about two hours north of Columbus. The Marblehead Lighthouse towers over the Sandusky bay and I had the idea for quite a while to propose to her at the lighthouse. Her and my parents thought I'd be proposing to her that night, but we were having so much fun at the Cedar Point amusement park I decided to push it to the following morning, also so things wouldn't be rushed. I told her about the lighthouse and we made a plan to go the next morning. She thought it was just to see the lighthouse. I had other plans of course. So Thursday morning, I went shopping to get what I needed, while she got ready for the day. She thought I was getting supplies for lunch. We made it to the lighthouse park and there were tons of people already there lined up to see the lighthouse. She doesn't like to draw attention to herself, so I wondered how i'd propose without everyone and their dog enjoying the moment with us. I packed everything into my backpack but left a dozen roses into the car. We took lots of pictures at the base of the lighthouse and finally got to go into the lighthouse for our tour. It was a beautiful day and I nearly got on my knee when we made it to the top of the lighthouse, but I wanted to follow through with my plan so I waited. I nearly proposed again on our way down the winding steps, but again decided to wait. After the lighthouse tour, we found a secluded picnic table next to lighthouse on the rocks of the shore of the lake for "lunch". I couldn't have asked for a better spot. The waves were lightly crashing against the rocks, the birds were chirping, the trees were brilliantly green, the sky a beautiful shade of blue and the view amazing. As I set down my backpack, I turned to Mak and said that I'd forgotten something in the car, handed her the keys and asked her to go get it. She asked me what it was, and I evaded the question by telling her it was in a brown sack. She again asked again what it was and I told her she would find out. She gave me that funny face, you know the one, the half frustrated, half confused look because I was being so evasive, and took off for the car. After she left, I hurried and set up all the things I had gotten earlier in the day, which were things that reminded me of several of our dates together. I tried to light three colored candles but the breeze kept blowing them out. She finally came back with the dozen roses in her hand and knew something was up. She sat down on the other side of the table and I proceeded to tell her what everything meant. Then I got to the candles and explained that the blue one on the left represented our friendship(both our favorite colors are blue), and the red one on the right represented our love. I then said when you bring those two together, it can symbolically create the white candle in the middle, which represented purity and eternity. I then went over to her side of the table, got on one knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes, without any pause or hesitation this time, and I liked that response much better than the silence I got when I first told her I loved her! :) She then got really excited and wanted to take pictures of everything. It was such a great day and one that we'll always remember! I bought her a christmas ordament of the lighthouse, so we'll always remember the day, which is pretty cool since our anniversary will be on Dec 22nd if all goes according to plan. I love Makenna and can't wait to have her with me forever!

There is a quote from Paulo Coelho's book, The Alchemist, that comes to mind when I think about our courtship: "And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." I've really felt this is what happened to bring us together, the universe conspiring for us, with God having his hand in it every step of the way because of our righteous desires. Neither one of us were desperate, anxious just to get married just for the sake of getting married or for selfish reasons, but were looking for someone we could love, trust and become best friends with to get each other back to the Celestial Kingdom. I don't believe in "soul-mates" but there is no doubt in my mind the Lord helped us out and brought us together. In long distance dating, there are plenty of reasons to give up, but I'm a firm believer that if its right, and our desires are right, then it will happen the way it's supposed to. Hopefully I haven't divulged to many details. Mak, let me know if I have. Thanks to all who have helped and enjoyed this journey with us, especially her parents and my parents!