A Match Made in Heaven: The Proposal

October 21, 2000

Chris took such initiative in making plans for the weekend that I should have known something was up! Earlier in the week, Chris came up with the idea that we'd go down to Skyline Drive in VA, maybe hike a little, then try to get back to watch the Tech game with Karen and Josh at Mom and Dad's house. (We usually just hang out and figure out something to do). He had it all planned out...

I drove down to Chris' apartment in Falls Church to meet Chris at 9:30am so we could get an early start. I was in a pretty bad mood and fell asleep for the whole ride down. It was a fairly warm day - the last weekend before winter hit, so everyone else went down to see the leaves at their peak, too!

We did stop once at a lookout and saw Stony Man Mountain, and decided to climb up that mountain. We had been studying the book of Luke together, so the plan was to hike up, and do the study on the top of the mountain.

It didn't strike me as strange that we had to take an entire backpack for simply a Nalgene water bottle, a camera, and a couple of pieces of paper! Turns out Chris stocked it with a bottle of Champagne, plastic screw-together glasses, and his parents' video camera!

It was a short hike - about 30 minutes. The overlook spot at the top was literally crawling with people, so we had to really go off the trail a bit to find a quiet spot for our study. We finally found an uninhabited area. We did the study, then prayed, and before we were completely finished, two teenagers came bounding over the rocks in out spot! Chris was visibly frustrated, and I just said that it was maybe time to leave anyway - that God wouldn't mind if the end of our prayer was interrupted!

Chris and I started to climb up to leave, but we turned around and the kids had gone. Chris suggested that I go back to "our spot" so he could take my picture. I said to just take there, the scenery was the same, but Chris insisted and I relented.

Then Chris insisted that we finish praying (it turns out that he had the ring in his hand before!) We began to pray, and as Chris was finishing, he asked God for help as he was getting ready to ask someone a very important question... At that point, I realized something was up. I opened my eyes, thinking Chris was giving me a hint that he was going to ask my dad! As I opened my eyes, Chris was dropping to his knee, and said something about asking me. Then he did; I was shocked!

He asked if we should celebrate there or at the bottom. As he pulled out the champagne bottle, I realized what the backpack was for!

We reveled for awhile, then headed back to join everyone in Damascus. It was also Grandma and Papa's (Means) 56th Wedding anniversary! They were overjoyed, saying it was the best anniversary they'd had!

It was wonderful, exhausting, beautiful day!