It was February 17, 2006 at Sakura Midnight Sushi in Five Points in Birmingham, Alabama. I had been going on a few dates with one of his friends just for fun and was trying to give his friend directions on how to get where I was. Well, this guy handed the phone to Ryan and I proceeded to explain the directions. Well, I said it was Christine, but we did not know each other at this point, so he thought I was another Christine that he knows. He was a little rude and short on the phone and I had no clue who he was, so I decided to introduce myself when he walked up to possibly make him feel embarrassed for being short on the phone. Well, when he walked up, I introduced myself and shook his hand. At this moment, this kind of shock went through me and I lost my stomach. I remember the thought goin g through my head, "There is something different about him." I thought he was drop dead gorgeous, but he had a girl beside him so I thought he was taken. At this moment I went and mingled around with everyone there and didn't really talk to him again, until he sat down at the same table as me... with that other girl! Well, I was like, I will just get up talk to everyone since he is with his girlfriend. I left that night with my roomate and told her that I thought he was SO CUTE and it was too bad he had a girlfriend. Well, at the time, my roommate was dating one of his fraternity brothers and told him what I said. Her boyfriend said that Ryan had said the same about me and was not dating that girl, they were just friends. This is the moment when it all began and they began to set us up!

The Proposal

Ryan was coming in Saturday, November 15, 2008 to take me out on a surprise date and I had no idea of his plans, but I went out a bought a cute outfit to make sure I looked pretty for him since we don't get to spend much time together. I had hoped in my mind the week before that he would propose soon, but he mentioned something making me think that he had not even worked on the ring yet, so I put that thought out of my mind. He got here Saturday at 1pm, an d we made brunch of pancakes and cheese eggs together and watched the UGA v. Auburn football game. At 3:30 we both got ready to go out and right before we left, he told me what our plans were. He said he wanted to go to Cherokee Park and do a devotion together first since we haven't spent much time together and there are alot of changes that are about to take place in both of our lives. Well, I had been missing him and it is hard to connect on a spiritual level living two states away, so I thought this was a great idea. (The thought of engagement never crossed my mind at this point. I thought he was a little nervous about the possibility of engagement in the future and just wanted to put our eyes on the Lord.) Well, we left to go to the park and I am telling him all about this person I met that had an engagement ring and her diamond fell out of the setting. He asked what it looked like and I told him it had lots of baguette diamonds which I didn't like. Immediately he asked what those were and he tells me now that I made him nervous because he didn't know what he would do if he had picked out a ring with baguettes! Once we got to the park, we went under a gazebo and I sat down. He said, I have a present for you! He is still standing up at this point and doesn't sit down next to me so I started to speculate, but I kept assuring myself he was NOT going to propose. Well, there was a rolled up note on top of the present wrapped in ribbon , so I opened it first. It said GENESIS 2:24. He said, "you look it up in your Bible," so I thought, "oh, he is starting the devotion through the gift... this is cool!" Well I began to read and it read... "For this reason, a man should leave his father and mother and seek a wife and they will become one flesh." Well, before I got to the word father my heart sank and I thought to myself, "I know what this verse says! Oh my goodness!" I got tears in my eyes as I looked up at him standing with a look of "is this really happening?" His face was so serious (and nervous I could see) but I looked back down at my bible to make sure that I was not seeing things and making this up in my head. As I finished the verse and turned around, he was on his knee with the ring in his hand. At this point, I immediately started balling with my head in my hands. He said so many nice things (that I don't remember because I was so excited) and then he said those four words that every girl dreams about... "Will you marry me?" At this point I said yes and gave him a big kiss and hug without ever looking at the ring... it just looked really sparkly under my tears. He said, "do you want to look at the ring?" and I was like "of course!"

I can't believe how amazing it is! I have never seen a more beautiful ring! It looks just like me! We took a few pictures and then sat in the car and told funny stories about the whole process. We20then went to dinner at Saporro (a sushi place) because we met at a sushi place in Birmingham. We then rented Iron Man and went and bought Dairy Queen blizzards to top the night off.

I can't stop looking at my ring to even study! I will be taking notes, holding the paper down with my left hand and then stop writing just to stare at my ring because it is so sparkly! I take it off at night and put it in its little box, but a few times before I go to sleep I open the box just to see it again! I wear it proudly, because I have found the most amazing man a girl could ask for...