Monday, 20 April 2020

366 Days Later: Our engagement story

One year ago today Garrett asked me to be his wife and I said "yeah, sure. why not?". Just kidding.  My heart was racing, my palms were sweaty that I almost yelled "Yes!!!!" before the poor guy could finish his question. Our engagement day is one of the most memorable days of 2019 and I will probably be talking about it until I die haha.

Here is the story:
During the week of 15-20 April 202, Garrett told me that he was going to a Good Friday dinner at his Sister's place in Oklahoma City.
 For those who don't know... we were in a long distance relationship (I was in Washington, He was in Oklahoma) and we mostly Video called each other in the evenings after I got done with work but on that particular Friday we couldn't video call because I had to go to church after work and since Oklahoma is 2 hours ahead of Washington it would be midnight if I video called him after church. We texted our "Good night" during the service. I was so pooped after church and decided I'm going to sleep in on Saturday morning (boy was I wrong. I guess I'll sleep when I'm dead haha)

Early Saturday morning (between 7-7:30) My phone started buzzing and I answered when I saw it was Garrett calling. Even though I was tired I was excited to speak to him since we didn't get to video call the previous night. He asked me if I would like to go on a walk with him and I was so confused (I was half awake and thought maybe this is one of those cute things that couples in long distance relationships say to one another). He flipped his camera around to show me the name of my favourite walking/hiking trail in DuPont called Sequalitchew creek and I became hysterical- I became awake, jumped out of bed quickly and got dressed to go meet him.

I ran out of the house talking to myself "Garrett is in town!!!!!". I was surprised he was because we had visited each other in February and March. On our last visit we didn't talk about when we will see each other but we were surely going to see one another in May or June when I move to Texas.  Long distance relationship- especially with the most amazing human being I've ever come across was really hard. I felt every second we were apart, I missed him everyday but it was better being with him in a long distance relationship than not having him in my life at all.

When I got to the hiking trail we shared a warm hug and I kept saying "I can't believe you are here". I must have said that ten times. We held hands and walked the trail all the way to the end and sat on top of a log by the Lake/bay and talked........I was still exclaiming "I can't believe you are here" every chance I could. The air was so thin because it was early in the morning but my brain was becoming less foggy out of excitement of seeing my Boyfriend. I had no idea for what was coming next- While we were having a conversation he said "Let me tell you the real reason why I'm here" for a second my brain went "Oh O...he came to break up with me in person because he is such a nice guy he wouldn't do it over the phone"(Even though our relationship was very steady at this point my pessimistic brain automatically imagined the worst case scenario. I should probably put that as a skill on my Resume). He got up, held my hands and got me me up too and started making the most romantic speech (which included the sweetest words "I love you" which we had never said to each other before that moment even though throughout our dating relationship we knew we were in love with each other. They held so much meaning at this point. I knew he meant it as he has demonstrated it in action in the few months we had been together). He got down on one knee and asked me If I would do him the honour of becoming his wife. My mind had already said yes. I vocalized my yes and the waterworks followed, especially after he told me he asked my mother for my hand in marriage days before he came to propose.
He opened a tiny box and took out a ring then put it on my ring finger. The ring was 2 sizes bigger than my actual size because few days before I visited him in March he asked me to measure all my fingers and the size of my head so that he could buy me motorcycle gloves and a helmet so that we could ride his motorcycle together when I came to Bartlesville. Since I didn't know much about being a motorcycle passenger I didn't suspect anything. I got my fingers and head measured and sent Garrett the measurements. Turned out the measurement was incorrect which left him buying a bigger ring. We took the rings to the store to be resized and bought a cheap surrogate ring at Walmart.

The rest of our engagement day was filled with a lot of admin. Telling our family and friends (and facebook) about the engagement then going to a coffee shop to work on the plan (How do we get married if i'm a foreigner, which immigration lawyer should we hire, paperwork, when should we get married, etc).
We went for dinner in the evening at a restaurant called El gaucho to celebrate (man that place is expensive but you only get engaged once I guess).

Even though our engagement was three weeks, it felt like ages because I couldn't wait to be married to Mr Johnson. I couldn't wait to say "I do". A year later I'm so glad I did!