Engagement Day

Valentines Day, 2008 will make Valentines Day one of the most special days of the year for the rest of my life.

When I returned from breakfast with my mom (which I learned later was just a grand ploy to get me out of the house), I pulled into my driveway to see a teddy bear as big as me sitting in a lawn chair holding a rose, a huge chocolate bar and a note which read: “Follow the roses, Love.” I looked up to see a trail of roses leading down the hill in my backyard to right in front of the big azalea bush.
When I reached the end of the trail, there was a treasure chest on a bed of roses and red tulle. Upon opening the box, I saw that there was a card sitting on several inches of sand. The card was hand written in tiny print and completely full. It ended with these words: “If you ever wanto to know the depth of my love or how many ways I love you, count this sand.” I ran my fingers through the sand and shook my head, amazed at the love I had been blessed with. I was reminded again that I was the luckiest girl in the world.
I stood up and turned around and there he was, at the top of the hill :-)

We got everything ready to take to Windsor Ruins for our previously planned picnic, dropped Sam off with my mom and went on our way. Little did I know, the letter in the sand wasn’t going to be the highlight of the day. It was only beginning.

A tree blocked the entrance to the Ruins, so we continued on foot - in our formal attire – over the barbed wire fence and down the road. When I saw Windsor Ruins, I drew a quick breath. It was even more beautiful than I’d imagined. We down our picnic things and Cole asked me to walk with him. When I took his hand, I noted that he was shaking. Something big was about to happen. “Do you remember when we were in Ecuador, what I said to you? What I said I wasn’t doing?” “What do you mean?” “In the supermarket. Do you remember what I told you I wasn’t doing at that moment?” “Oh yes, that you weren’t falling down on your knees confessing undying love or anything?” I responded with a laugh. “Yeah.” He fell down to one knee, pulled a ring out of his pocket and said: “Well, now this is me falling down on my knees proclaiming undying love for you. Robin, will you make me the happiest man on earth? Will you share your life with me? Will you raise a family with me? Will you grow old with me? Robin, will you marry me?” With a voice quivering from excitement, I responded : “I always said I’d know I was in love when the prospect of being with someone forever went from seeming like an eternity to not nearly long enough. That’s exactly how I feel about you. Yes, I will marry you.”

He moved my purity ring to my right hand, placed his ring on my left and sprung to his feet. Then, the kiss we had saved our whole lives for each other. Well worth the twenty year wait :-)

Our day concluded with dinner at The Castle, where we had our first date. It was a perfect ending to the happiest day of my life up to then. But I have to say, as wonderful of day as it was, every day just gets better.

Friendship: A Beautiful Beginning

I'm pretty sure I have absolutely no readers anymore, but I'm posting anyway :-)

As I'm sure everyone knows, I became engaged to Cole Rutherford on Valentine's Day of this year. I've decided to post a couple of entries that I wrote for our wedding website here. Enjoy!

The first picture we ever had of just the two of us, a few days before our courtship began.

"There is still a bit of dispute as to when our first meeting was. He says that when we first played our harp and flute duet at Parkway Baptist Church, he introduced himself. It’s probably true, but you can’t prove it by me.

I knew of Cole long before I ever met him. He practically lived with our pastor’s family, the Walkers, and they were always talking about Cole, Cole, Cole. Cole did this, Cole blew up that. The stories seemed to be never ending. One of the first times I went to the Walker’s, Lainie took me back to her room and proceeded to show me what seemed like 50 million pictures from their recent trip to Ecuador. “Here’s Cole and Henry!” She laughed. I looked over to see a picture of a giant white man in a skirt, with black stripes painted on his face and bare chest. He had some weird red stuff in his hair and what looked like an arrangement of cotton balls on his head. He was standing next to a comparatively very small Tsachila man. “Odd.” I thought. “Very odd.”

I remember the first time I noticed him. I was sitting with my family in the back of the church, trying to concentrate, but I was distracted by a figure on the second row. I thought he may be the Cole of all of the stories I’d heard, but I wasn’t quite sure. Whoever he was, something was different about him. He radiated passion for God. I knew that what I sought above all else in my future husband was a consuming passion for the Gospel. When I saw him I thought to myself “I want a guy like that. Whoever gets him is going to be an incredibly lucky girl.”

On September 23rd, 2006, we went to an ice cream social for the College and Career group. Cole came over to where Merisha and I were sitting and talked to us the entire evening. He was pretty much the only person who said more than five words to us for several weeks, so, of course, we became friends. Over the months to come, we saw each other every day. He was over several days a week for dinner, and the three of us went everywhere together. Bonfires, to the mall, out to eat, you name it. We didn’t have a car, so he drove us around to all of the church functions too. The more we got to know each other as friends, the more I was shocked to find out how unified we were in our beliefs and views. I struggled to remain platonic, but the more I knew of him, the more I was impressed and saw in him qualities and views I wanted in my husband. I knew for several reasons that he was out of reach and “Teardrops on my Guitar” became my favorite song. I told myself everyday that if all I ever had with him was friendship, I’d be satisfied.

Around Christmas, our friendship grew deeper, and by Spring, though we were both very verbal about not being in a relationship, we were viewed by everyone as a couple. We denied it, even to ourselves, but we were both - almost against our own wills - falling in love."