I am so excited and couldn't be happier than to be marrying Kevin! We got engaged on Tuesday, September 4! The day could not have been more perfect!
I'll share our love story next week and focus on our engagement today. I'm including lots of not important to you details, but they're all important to me!
After work on Tuesday, I sent Kevin a text about dinner plans. Really, I was trying to bait him. :) We have wedding plans made (more on those later, too!) and I knew that he was having a ring made and it was coming in that day (we're really bad at secrets) and I really just wanted to see what he'd say.
When I walked in, he met me at the door and told me we had dinner plans and I might want to change clothes. Of course, a million possible scenarios passed through my head, and I ended up putting on a flamingo Lilly skirt with my pink ruffle top. I happened to wear this on our first date, too!
I was parked behind him and he said we needed to move my car or he would have to put some things in the back seat. I moved my car and got in with him. After driving a few miles, I asked where we were going and he told me it was a surprise. I kept trying to figure it out, but couldn't. On our final turn towards our destination, he told me we were going to the beach. We live only about an hour and a half from the beach, so it wasn't too long of a drive.
The beach is such a special place for us. We both grew up going there a ton, and for Kevin, it's a place that was a constant in his life. He moved a few times around the state growing up, but always spent a lot of time at the beach, especially during the summers, at his grandparent's beach house. Through the time that we've been dating, we've spent a lot of time at the beach with our families, too. There was not a more special place to get engaged for us than there!
When we got down to Garden City, we parked at the Inlet Joy, his family beach house, and walked out on the beach. He had picked up some sandwiches, broccoli salad, potato salad, and some red velvet cake from the Butcher Shoppe and had it packed, along with a blanket, in a picnic basket.
We sat out on the beach and were able to enjoy our dinner as the sun set. The beach was gorgeous! The tide was falling, the weather felt perfect, and there weren't any people around.
After we ate, we started talking about us: how we're perfect together, how blessed we feel, and how fortunate we are to be with each other. He got a note out of his pocket he had written several years ago and kept with the attributes he wanted his future wife to have. He had told me about this list before and had said that I was all of them, but I saw it for the first time that night. It was so special! After that, he told me how he couldn't wait to marry me and how much he wanted to marry me, and then he asked me to be his wife!
We kept talking about how blessed we are and I shared with him something, too. Shortly before we met, I sung for my childhood best friend's wedding. After her wedding, I went to the lake for the weekend with my family and that Saturday night, I stayed up most of the night praying about my future husband and children. I (and Kevin, too) had gone through some unpleasant things in the years prior to our meeting and I just had faith and knew that God was going to bring me through. I distinctly remember praying that I didn't want to get involved with anyone until God placed the person in my life He had made to be my husband.
Every thing I had ever prayed for in a man is in Kevin. I also know that while God was preparing Kevin and me for each other, he was also preparing our family for each other. Since I was a teenager, I've prayed for my husband and future children. Little did I know I would get to become Anna Belle to the sweetest, most precious little boys in the world! I couldn't love K.C. and Kaden more if I tried, and I firmly believe that God, in His goodness, grace, and always perfect-timing, put us all together just as He wanted and allowed us to form the greatest bond nearly instantaneously.
Getting back on track. After I shared that late-night lake night story with Kevin, he asked me if I wanted my ring and pulled out the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. We talked about and looked at different rings, so he knew the types I like, and what he designed is more gorgeous than I could have imagined. It's a beautiful round diamond with almost a cushion cut halo around it and pave diamonds around the band. I love the way it sparkles and I've found myself staring at it all day!
After this, the fireworks started going off. There were some people down the beach shooting fireworks and we watched from our beach blanket. It was great just being able to soak up the moment together. We hadn't taken a camera, but we took a self-portrait with Kevin's iPhone. The Instagrammed version is above.
I am just so excited and thrilled to be spending my life with Kevin! God is so good!
I have found the one whom my soul loves! Song of Solomon 3:4Labels: engagement, faith, family, K.C., Kaden, Kevin
