In Your Eyes I See That Perfect World

I would like to start sharing the wonderful blog entries with everyone. This one was on all of the judges' lists so we must have liked it ;)


The Proposal

Naked. In bed. At 2:00 in the morning on a Wednesday night. Or technically Thursday morning I suppose. Either way, this is NOT how I imagined my marriage proposal.

Ever since I was a little girl, I had this fantasy idea of how my proposal would take place. After a beautiful Saturday dinner out, I imagined going for a walk in some fantastically romantic park setting, near a river or something. Then, just like in the movies, my boyfriend would get down on one knee, gently take my left hand, beam a nervous smile up at me and pop open a Birks silver box containing the Ring while saying those four magical words... "Will you marry me?".

So getting engaged at 2:00 in the morning mid-week, with pillow tousled curls and tossed bed sheets; well, hearing those magical words being uttered in that setting was a bit jarring.

No we hadn't just rocked the world in that bed, prompting that sudden proposal. I wish! ;-) Instead, my partner and I had been winding up a long day of talking, crying and negotiating our future. Why tears? Because just yesterday, my man woke me up at the end of a night shift to inform me that he had orders to ship out to Afghanistan in February 2009. He will be gone for six months, possibly nine. Neither of us slept much after that news.


Yes he’s in the military, in one of those jobs so top secret I don’t really even know what he does on a daily basis. Me? I’m a graduate student in my second year, working on finding an acceptable thesis topic.

Given my studies, I hadn’t envisioned getting married anytime soon. But something about having this man I love go so far away for so long suddenly prompted images of wanting to officially be Mrs. Military. For him, it was a way to feel his “perfect girl” would be taken care of while he’s gone and know that I’d be here when he got back.

And so, the proposal happened. It happened not at all like it was in my childhood fantasies. Nothing about it was the same. There was no pretty dress, no fabulously romantic setting, no ring. Those four little words weren’t said on bended knee. In fact, they weren’t even uttered by him.

I was the one who said them, not him.

Oh.. yeah.. His answer?

“yes!... Yes yes yes yes YES!”

I’m so happy!

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