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How I became his girlfriend

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Stephen is a patient planner. After we first met in the prayer group that he started at Cedarville University, Stephen and I gradually spent more and more time together. In this pre-dating phase, he was really clear and sincere and intentional—lunches together, hanging out after classes, texting and talking on facebook. And yet, Little Miss Impatient over here was still longing for verbalization: was this something real or just super good friends?

 

Then, one sunny Sunday afternoon, Stephen called me and asked if I wanted to go out to for a late-lunch/early-dinner with just him, on a date. I didn’t even breathe before blurting out “yes.” He took me to a really cute, truly authentic Puerto Rican restaurant in Dayton called Antijitos Criollos. I couldn’t even pronounce that name before we went, but I sure enjoyed our food. And of course, I loved the conversation. As the meal wrapped up, I figured we would head back to campus.

 

“Would you like to go get some coffee at the Green?” (an outdoor mall about 10 minutes way)

 

Again, before breathing and through a huge smile: “Yes”

 

Yummy coffee, a cool Ohio evening, people watching, talking about ourselves and our families and where we come from—the evening just kept getting better. Before we returned to our Cedarville lives, though, we played a game at the bookstore. I found two books that described him, and he choose two titles for me. Our best choices were The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult and The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel. Stephen is the storyteller because he vividly and passionately told me all about his trips to the Philippines, Thailand, and the DR, as well as his adventures in teaching English to immigrants in Dayton. I became a painted cave—mysterious and surprising while also, somehow, interesting and appealing. Yeah, he did well. :)

 

But the real kicker came on the drive home: “If you look under your seat, there should be a scroll of paper for you.”

 

I read the poem—beautiful, heart-felt, Christ-centered, and confusing as all get out.

 

“I’m not sure where the question is, but I think I know what my answer will be.” No one can accuse me of stringing him along.

 

Finally, a hint: “Look at the first letters in each line.”

 

Will you be my girlfriend?

 

No breathing, all smiles: “Yes!”

How I became her fiancé

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Before I jump into the story, I'll add a little tidbit about how two of my best friends and I came up to Michigan about a month prior to the engagement, to meet up with Mr. Cline.  They didn’t specifically come to meet him, but came to support me while I met to ask his permission to marry Abby.  Then, it played oh-so-well into the cover-up story that we just came up to surprise Abby.  She was none-the-wiser.

 

I knew for quite awhile that I wanted to propose, and after talking with her dad, I couldn’t wait much longer.  The thing is, that once I got the answer that I hoped for, the floodgates opened and now nothing was holding me back but…well…me. 

 

If you heard the story about how I asked Abby to be my girlfriend, you’d know that I got creative, and the sneakiness worked much better than I would have guessed. ;) So, like all some guys do by mistake, they seem to outdo themselves.  Being a perfectionist of sorts, I wanted this proposal to be very sentimental, not super out there, but if possible, better than when I asked her to be my girlfriend.

 

I settled on an idea that ended up taking a week or so to complete.  The plan involved:

1) a book that had lots of meaning for us, which incidentally made its first and only appearance in our lives at the date when I asked her out

2) tools to cut a hole out of the book with enough space for a ring, and

3) a scrapbook

  *Funny tidbit: I had no idea the book would be over 300 pages and hardcover. The original one we found was super small. I just started cutting the pages with a knife, but found instructions on how to make perfectly straight lines only a few days before I was about to be done.  The instructions called for a drill, so I almost set the book on fire multiple times!

 

After all the planning and prep was done with the sales associate at Jared’s, I was ready to put this plan into action.  I happened to be at the Cline’s house for the weekend, and her immediate family, as well as mine, were going to meet the following day for a dinner.  Abby thought it was just a cool get-together, but most everyone else knew what it was really celebrating. 

 

The day of the proposal, I surprised her sister by explaining the plan to her and letting her know how she can help Abby, in case she struggled at all. Absolutely ecstatic, she held her composure quite well.  Here was the gameplan of the proposal:

  • Show Abby a scrapbook that chronicled our past year of dating (coincidentally, we’d been dating for about a year to the date)

  • In the back, a note would send her on a scavenger hunt

  • Hunt would lead to hidden book, while I snuck outside to meet her in a bit

  • Sister makes sure she doesn’t open book too early and sends her out to me

  • Talk a bit to prolong the agony…..THEN…….Proposal!

 

I must say, everything certainly went according to plan.  Even more-so because at the very last second, while we were outside, Sarah realized that she brought a camera with her for the weekend!

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OUR STORY

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