I am getting married! I can’t believe it, but get this, to top it all off—she is the woman of my dreams AND my best friend!

I know, I know, it may sound cliché and like a bunch of mushy gushy, mumbo jumbo, but I am dead serious. This girl is my entire world, and when she came into my life, it changed instantly for the better. Talk about a gorgeous girl, but man is she smart and sweet too. A woman who can bring me closer to God, seemingly without even trying, and make me appreciate life in such an amazing way! I always say, make a man laugh and you have his attention, draw a man closer to God and you have his heart. And boy does she have my heart.

Here we go again with the cliché nonsense, but I honestly thought that I would just have to one day settle and just go with the flow and make things work with “whomever I was supposed to end up.” I figured because I knew that neither I nor anyone on earth is perfect; neither can any relationship, so I just accepted the conclusion I would have to accept whatever worked best. But wow was I wrong. When I met Caroline, I knew from the moment we sat down at dinner for the first time, that she was something beyond my wildest dreams. The way we carried on throughout dinner and the rest of the evening, and through text messages and phone calls, like we had been best friends for years, yet the clock seemed to go to fast when we were together. She was and is “the one.” Not almost the one, not kind of the one, not I will settle and just put up with this one—THE one. Now don’t for one second think that I think we are perfect, because we are not, but man we are one heck of a team. We are perfect IN our imperfections and we understand that mistakes will be made, but those mistakes cannot and will not ever actually define who we are.

Caroline and I have a healthy relationship where we save sex for marriage where it belongs, and where God and family come first. We understand that we get to enter into an amazing sacrament with each other and we understand and are ready to one day bring kids into this amazing world and faith. I urge you all, to never force anything, never think that it must just be the way it is, and that there is nothing better to be reaching for and excelling towards. Be open to God’s plan and be open to that plan’s timing. I always joke around with Caroline because of how long it took her to agree to go on a date with me, but if the timing were any different, even though we were absolutely made for each other, a lot of complications and roadblocks may have made things extremely difficult. It all happened and worked out the way it did for a reason, and I am beyond blessed that it did.

So back to the title of the article, the good part! The part where the big proposal happened and some crazy proof that God was watching over us that day. Now I know He is always watching over us, and it wouldn’t be any different if none of this happened, because He still would have been there, but it is really cool that it did. For starters, two days prior to the nerve-wrecking day, I was running around getting things to where they needed to be, and getting plans, and preparations in order. I wanted this proposal to be perfect and go off without a hitch. In the craziness of running around, I totally lost track of time and forgot completely about food. It got to be about 3:30 or so and I was extremely light headed from stress and a lack of food. I ran over to the clubhouse and sat at the bar by myself to grab a quick bite to eat. This old man was sitting next to me, and kept trying to talk to me about random things. But, I was so focused and stressed I just kept nodding and agreeing, and my mind was admittedly elsewhere. As I paid and sat for a minute finishing my water, I started to try and relax and began to indulge in small talk. He talked about how much he loved the beach we were at and about his old jobs. I agreed with him and told him it was actually my favorite place on earth, and that I was asking the most amazing girl in the world to marry me on that Saturday.

He looked at me. “Well good luck, I hope she says yes,” he said as he chuckled to himself. I couldn’t help but crack a smile and told him about how Caroline loved that beach too. He then said, “I just love to take a beach chair and sit down on the beach and lean back and think to myself, I wonder what the poor people are doing right now.” Now first let me explain, it is just a funny saying, it doesn’t have any offensive or demeaning intention whatsoever. But, the thing is, I had never heard that line before in my life, except for from my grandfather who had passed when I was in middle school. I was heartbroken and had felt like I lost a best friend. Yet here I am, nervous as can be, making a huge step in my life, and God lets Grandpa have a word with me. My jaw dropped, and I was in disbelief, all I could do was thank him for talking to me and explain that I had to get moving (as I’m practically sobbing to myself like a dad-gum damsel in distress). My dad and I shared a very powerful moment when I explained to him how his dad was watching over us that weekend, and every weekend.

As if this chilling moment wasn’t enough, the day of, Saturday, was just as crazy. I woke up first thing to drive half way back to meet my soon to be fiancé who was on the way and drive her back down with me. Now keep in mind she had no idea I was already there setting up or that any of this is going to happen. Yes—completely clueless. And no, I have no idea how she didn’t find out, but am I ever glad that she didn’t. She, thinking I was on business had mentioned the rain, which I had just devastatingly come out of. It was this ominous and terrifyingly black cloud that was looming over the coast, and literally just wasn’t moving. I, of course, was in panic mode, worried to death that this entirely-planned, outside engagement would be ruined. In between fielding phone calls from people helping to set up, I was praying; praying that He would shine some sun on that day and let this engagement work out perfectly. But as I looked at the weather and received messages about funnel clouds and severe thunderstorm warnings back at the beach, I became disheartened, but still prayed.

I finally made it to where we were meeting and we loaded up the car to head to the beach. On the way there, the rain was on and off and still looking like a very rainy day for the evening forecast. But, just as I start crossing the bridge over to Hilton Head Island, the clouds started to get lighter, and by the time we arrived, the sun started to make an appearance. As the plan got set into motion, it was one of the most beautiful evenings I had ever witnessed. The sky was gorgeous, and the clouds cleared up. Not a drop fell the entire time, and after she said yes, someone pointed and yelled to look out towards the sea, as a rainbow had shown up.

He was there. The entire time, He was listening and watching over us. He provided the most perfect and amazing weekend, which should have been an awful and gloomy experience. We chose to live our lives in faith and we chose to live our lives for Him, and He provided. Now, I’m not saying she would have said no if the weather wasn’t perfect, but what a sign from above to see that you are doing the right thing, and to see that He is happy you have followed some small piece of His grand plan. So, here I am, happily engaged with the most beautiful, perfect, happy, loving, and amazing fiancé in the whole world and I get to tell people, that God Himself was at our engagement—and He knows how to party.

[youtube id = “ZuPcN6W1ug4”]

Editor’s Note: Don’t miss the video!

Print this entry