Every year our Illini family (group of college friends) gets together to celebrate New Year's. This year we decided to spend it at my house in Houston, Texas. After a nice, filling hot pot dinner, it was time for our white elephant gift exchange. The rules for our gift exchange were that the gift had to be under $5.00 and you had to be creative. Unbeknownst to me, the whole exchange was set up so that I would end up with a one special gift.
My sister Kimmy helped rig the game so I would be the first person to select a present. After choosing one gift and having it stolen, I eventually selected one present that was neatly wrapped in green. I thought for sure that it was Denise's gift and I was really excited to see what was inside. When I opened it, I found a box stuffed with a bunch of tissue paper. "What is going on?" I wondered. At the bottom of the box, I found a CD case with the instructions, "Play the video on this CD immediately."
As I was watching the video, I felt my body temperature rise at a ridiculous rate. Finally when I read the words "Turn around" on the last slide, I whimpered, "I'm scurred!"
At this point, I was down on one knee with the ring in my hand. And now, I was really starting to get nervous. I was so stressed out about making sure everything up to this point worked out that I felt completely unprepared to actually propose to her. It didn't help that so many people were surrounding us with their cameras. In fact, at that very moment, I wondered why I even planned to do the proposal in front of all of them!
I don't even remember exactly what I said after she turned around, but I ended it with, "Will you marry me?" to which she responded, "yes!"
After hugs and group pictures, we went downstairs where Joy's parents had prepared balloons, cake, and champagne.
Finally, I remembered why I chose to do it this way - proposing and celebrating our engagement with our close friends and family was a true blessing. Joy and I were both super happy to share it all with them.
And that's the story. Thanks again to all who made this possible! And stay tuned for future posts!
Joy & Timmy
