Will you marry me?

A month ago today, Eric proposed to me! I arrived back on the east coast after eight weeks apart on August 8th. Twelve hours after my plane touchdowned, Eric and I were leading worship at a UMC in Plainfield, NJ. We spent the next day at the beach on the Jersey shore and in the evening, I found the first of many clues leading to our engagement. Following a scavenger hunt from North Brunswick, NJ to Hopwood, PA, Eric led me up the mountainside at the camp I've worked at for years in a thunderstorm that arrived just as we did. Standing in the rain with a beach umbrella over our heads looking towards the Great Cross that overlooks four states, Eric admitted that he thought our dinner was under the cross. Thankfully, I had noticed a candlelit dinner at the HOPE Camp pavillion on our walk up (I didn't want to point it out and sound like, "Wow, Eric, look. Someone's having a romantic dinner...") As we trekked back down the flooded path, Eric pointed out white plastic daisies that were along the way and I collected them wondering what it the world our next week of vacation held it store. We enjoyed a picnic dinner, very similar to that of our first date, as the rain died down and by the time we had finished, Eric suggested that we go back up the the cross. We did and as we looked out over the valley, Eric pulled an envelope out of his bag. He said, "I found this over the summer and thought we could open it." He was holding what I thought was the card I had hidden under his seat that was stashed for when he went up to talk to my parents. After my mom told him to check his car for a note, he would find money to go to the batting cages in Weirs Beach, NH... Here we are in western PA about to read what I think is my recommendation to go to the batting cages in NH! But no, he had forged the envelope!! Instead inside was a letter to me that ended, "After dating you for fifteen months and talking with your dad, I don't think you should call me boyfriend anymore..." (What?!?!! Did Dad scare him off? Is he breaking up with me?! ) "You should call me fiance." Whew! Eric was done on one knee holding the ring box and asked me to marry him. I think my response was, "Of course!" :-) Then my best friend, Tricia, came out of the woods with her fiance, both welding cameras and congratulations. AMAZING!

It's been a crazy ride since then-- two days to ourselves, then traveling to see family members along the east coast for a week, then Eric left for a mission trip while I had doctors' appointments, then moving us into respective new homes and starting school and part-time jobs. We're both still settling in and trying to work into a routine. Eventually I'll get a sweet photo up here for you.