Fabulous Friday | We're ENGAGED!

The desire to be a wife and a mom has always been in me.  And I won't lie... it's been a struggle watching all of my friends find their husbands and begin their families.  Don't get me wrong though, the time I've had as a single woman has been like nothing I would have thought to ask for.  God has given me so many opportunities and chances to grow over the years that I wouldn't have had if I'd been a wife and a mom.  And I'm SO thankful for that time.  I'm thankful for what He's taught me over the years.  I'm thankful for how He's been able to use me over the years.  I'm thankful for Him loving me like no man has ever, nor will ever, be able to.

But, that desire to be a wife and mom has never diminished.  But I wanted to wait.  I didn't want to get married for the sake of getting married.  I wanted to wait for the man that was right for me, who loved the Lord more than he would ever love me, who was capable and willing to lead our relationship and our family, who would pursue me, protect me, and provide for us.

And every moment I waited, every tear I cried, every prayer I prayed, every lesson that was learned was so. incredibly. worth. it.  Ben Fields is an incredible man.  Like me, he's human, which means we're both going to make mistakes.  We're both going to fail each other.  We're both going to be disappointed with each other at times.   But, as long as we stick together and look to God before we look anywhere else and keep HIM on a pedestal instead of each other, then we'll be able to make it through anything.  And knowing that Ben is willing to walk that road and wants me by my side is like nothing I ever could have dreamed.  I knew that waiting on a love like this would be worth it.  And God has blown my mind with not just the man He's brought into my life, but with the relationship He's continuing to grow between us.

Last Friday, July 1, 2011 (our 10 month "anniversary"), I came home from being at the beach for a week.  Ben had asked me to go to dinner with him that night but had said he wanted to come by and see me really quickly since we'd been apart for the week.  We talked throughout the day as I made my way back from Hilton Head and then I called him one last time when I was about 30 minutes out.  He said he'd had errands to run so it made sense that, with a 30 minute window, he could get to my house from anywhere in Greenville.

When I pulled up onto my street, I didn't see his car so I knew I had some time to unload and then at least straighten my hair (at that point, I looked like Hermione Granger from the first Harry Potter movie... it was scary).  So, I pull into my driveway, grab a few things to begin unloading, walk up to the front door and open it to this...

There were candles lit everywhere.  Rose petals were laying in a trail along the floor.  And our song, I'm Yours, by Jason Mraz, was playing from a CD player over in the corner.  I was blown away by how beautiful it all was.  My very first thought was, "wow! This is gorgeous!"  And as I looked around the room and saw all of the details, tears welled up in my eyes.  This was it.  This was what I'd been waiting so long for...  

So, I followed his instructions on the poster that was resting on my tripod and walked around my house, which took me through the last 10 months of our relationship.

The first time we met, we sat at Starbucks for close to two hours.  After they closed, we walked to my car and talked some more.  Not knowing how the evening would end, I smiled when he asked for my number :-)

When he called me a couple days later, we decided to do something again soon.  So, he asked me to go and see Inception with him.  When I pulled up to the Hollywood 20, he had already bought the tickets and was waiting for me.  When we walked into the theater, he asked if I was thirsty and proceeded to pull a bottle of Cherry Coke from his pocket!  Already, he was a man after my heart... 

There are so many good, painful, and wonderful memories on this couch...

Yes, the first time he came to my house we had pineapple pizza while we watched The Biggest Loser.  Hey, we'd been to the gym that week.  We were in the clear!

During Fall for Greenville in October, we went downtown where we ate at Pomegranate then wandered up Main Street listening to bands and enjoying our time together.  I'd hoped he would grab my hand as we walked through crowds, but one of the times he looked back at me, I linked my arm through his so as not to lose him.  After we started making our way back down Main Street, we sat on this bench where an incredibly intoxicated man named Tony sat down to wait on a taxi.  Tony was very nice and introduced himself to us no less than 6 times... so if you ever hear us introducing ourselves to each other as Tony... well, now you know why!

Ben is first and foremost a Tarheel fan (much better than a Gamecock fan! :-), but he quickly adopted Clemson as his second favorite team.  When I invited him to the Miami game last fall, I told him it was ok if he didn't have any orange to wear.  But, he went out and bought his first Clemson shirt!

I was (and still am) amazed that he hung rolls of film from this doorway!

After living in Belgium for a semester, where they make some of the most amazing chocolate in the world, I'm a self-proclaimed chocolate snob.  Hey, I can't help that I like really good chocolate!  So, Ben placed the film canisters around my house with Godiva chocolates sitting in them!

This picture is of his back porch where he took me on October 22, 2010.  We'd had my birthday dinner at the Melting Pot and then he took me to his house for the first time where he gave me and we watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast (I'd been waiting for it to come out of the "Disney Vault" for AGES).

We love cooking together... especially since Ben is such a good cook :-)  Although, I can make a pretty mean bag of popcorn!

Sunday when I left for the beach, he stayed behind at my house to figure out what was going on with my fridge (which decided to stop being cold) and to wash my dishes and start setting all of this up...

These were the fortunes I put in the fortune cookies I brought back from San Francisco last November.  They say "Sept 1, 2010" (first time we met), " "I'm Yours" (first song we ever danced to), "You are my sunshine", "Wait for the Lord, Psalm 27:14" (I've had it written on my bathroom mirror for ages),  and finally "I love you".

The week after my mom found and gave me the small red bistro table that you see in the picture (which I love and will frame and hang in that spot!), Ben and I both happened to have dentist appointments on the same day.  So, he brought breakfast over (croissants and Starbucks!) and we sat outside to enjoy the morning together.

I continued to follow the trail of rose petals and actually skipped over the bathroom (oops!).  But he took me back later. The purple writing is Psalm 27:14, which says, "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."  The lighter blue writing, which Ben wrote, says "I read this every time I came in here..." And below it he wrote, "Thank you for waiting.  Thank you for being patient.  Thank you for trusting the Lord.  Thank you for trusting me."

Be still my heart... would you look at those sun flares he captured?!?  This is the picnic table we've had a couple of picnics at when I've gone to have lunch with Ben at work.  The note next to the Godiva chocolate box says, "You don't have to eat this chocolate right now." :-)

Please ignore the title of this book.  It's so cheesy!  But, inside it has 101 questions for a couple to go through to help them get to know each other better.  Again, it may not be for everyone, but with both of us being introverts, it really spurred on some amazing conversations that we may never have thought to have.  And if you aren't up on "emoticons", that's a kissy face on the paper next to the book :-* haha!

Wow... just wow.  Ben, you continue to blow me away.  Thank you for loving me so much!

As I walked out of my room and into the little "hallway" there were several things on the closet doors and wall.  Ben got this foam bag (like a bean bag but bigger and with pieces of foam in it!) just before he officially asked me to be his girlfriend.  It's perfect to sit in snuggled up to watch movies on his large projector screen!

Mission Michigan 2011... need I say more?? :-)

This was the last thing that I saw before I parted the curtain to walk back into the living room...

As I walked back into the living room, with another version of I'm Yours playing on the CD player, Ben was on one knee holding a ring box, and asked me the words I've been longing to hear him say... "Will you marry me?"  After I said yes through the tears that had not stopped, he put the most gorgeous ring I've ever seen on my finger.

Benjamin Fields... THANK YOU!  Not just for such an incredible and thoughtful and detailed proposal, but for asking me to be your WIFE!  Can you believe it...?!?!  We're getting MARRIED!!!!  I love you so much and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.

After sitting on the couch, looking at the ring, and enjoying what had just happened, Ben went home to get ready and then come back to pick me up for dinner at Pomegranate!  He had prearranged everything there too... we had a table outside where a rose and a stack of notes were waiting for us.  The notes were from several people who mean a lot to me, including pastors, friends, my small group leaders, his parents and my mom.  Ben had gone to several of them and contacted others by phone and email to ask them to write a note to me about this new stage of life.  They are something I will treasure for the rest of our lives.

Believe it or not, we forgot to have someone take a picture of us at dinner!  So, we took this one when we got back to my house later that night.

And today... I put on my macro filter and played around with some ring shots.  With my engagement ring.  No big deal... :-)

Ready or not... November 5, here we come!