Live to Love.: The Story

On December 31st, 2010 he asked, I said "yes!"

We were spending New Years Eve with our families. After dinner we came back to my house to play games and enjoy the night together. We played a hilarious game of Apples to Apples and then it was time to open presents. (We didn't get to exchange presents on Christmas so we waited for both of our families to be together to do it.) We started with gifts from family members and to family members. It was lovely. Then when we got to our presents for each other Matt said he wanted it to be just the two of us, so everyone else went into the other room. He asked my mom to stay and take pictures of us opening our Christmas presents. He went first and we took turns. It was so sweet to share this memory together. Finally, we got to my last present. I opened it up and almost began crying instantly. He had created a photo book of our past year together, which is basically our love story in photographs. (Sidenote: I love photography. So to have our love story in a photo book is the most precious thing to me.) He came over and kneeled down next to me as we were looking through the pictures together and reminiscing on the past year. We were laughing and could not stop smiling as we looked back on an amazing year together. When I was on what I thought was the last page of the book I almost shut it, but for some reason I left it open as I looked at him and smiled. Then, I noticed that there was another page. As I turned the page my heart began racing and I realized what was coming. The last page was a picture of an open ring box with no ring in it. Underneath it reads "There's one thing left to do to make this year really complete...". In that moment I looked over at him and he pulled out the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. I'm not entirely sure what he actually asked me because I was screaming "Shut up!!!" over and over again. (Woops.) He placed the ring on my insanely shaky hand and we leaned in for our very first kiss ever. It was beautiful. Both of our moms were there to photograph the moment, which makes this moment even more precious to me. Within just a few seconds of it being “official” some of our best friends ran in the front door surprising us. After a few hugs, tears, and laughs, we all headed into the kitchen where the “engagement party” began. My mom had an engagement cake made in the shape of Haiti and it was decorated like Mission of Hope, Haiti where Matt and I fell in “like” (We met by leading a missions trip to Haiti together). The rest of the night was full of smiles and excitements. And, well…. The rest is history in the making.