how we met
I met Paula nearly 11 years ago in High school. Unfortunately I did not make the best first impression but instead a memory that we will laugh about for years to come. Fast forward 6 years, we had both just gotten out of long-term relationships with other people. They always say when you least expect it, your soulmate is right in front of you. Paula was still living in California and I was here in Illinois. We would spend hours getting lost in conversation with each other on the phone and on Skype. What we thought was just a friendship, turned out to be a love deeper than either of us have ever experienced before.
Now fast forward 2 months to her flight back home to Chicago. I made sure I was available to pick her up from the airport as I knew I wanted to be the first person she saw when she came home. I’ll never forget pulling up to the Terminal and seeing her for the first time in person in nearly 6 years. I said to myself “Wow. Wow…. She is absolutely stunning.” I parked, ran around to the other side and smiled. She smiled back and fell into my arms. Literally, because she forgot she was on the curb. That was the day I knew I will never let her go.
how they asked
We were on our way to celebrate our anniversary dinner, when Josh said we had to make a pit stop at his boss’s house to pickup paperwork he needed for his appointment first thing the next morning. I had just gotten off work and was hungry and tired. We started driving towards the lake, where his boss “lived”. When we pulled onto the street, I recognized the location, but thought to myself… No way would he be proposing in the pouring rain and ice that was falling from the sky.
He kept telling me to get out of the car and I kept locking the door from the inside exclaiming that it was raining and I wasn’t getting out. Josh managed to use his charming ways to get me out of the car and told me we were walking towards the beach. We began walking down the pathway and that very moment, I knew something was up. Why else would he take me to this spot in this weather? He hates the freezing cold!
We made our way down to the sand where tried his best to keep us as dry as possible with the umbrella and extremely strong winds from the lake. I asked him frantically “Why are we here? What’s going on?!” He said to look behind me. So I did, and there was absolutely nothing behind me, but when I returned to him…
He was down on one knee. Holding the box so calmly, he opened it up and asked me to be his, forever. I was in shock but I immediately screamed “yes!” in joy.
