the whole story!

So by now, many of you have heard the great news...

I am engaged to a wonderful woman (girl, lady, female twentysomething), Julie Wiant. She is a Hope College graduate just like myself, but interestingly enough, we never met during our time at Hope. We even graduated the same year (2005)!

We met at Ridge Point Community Church in February of this year. I asked her out on a date, she hesitantly said yes, we had fun, I asked her out again, and things kind of went on from there! Earlier this summer the two of us traveled with a team to Romania where we were working to empower a beautiful church. Later on this summer we traveled to Green Bay, Wisconsin with a group of middle school students where we worked for social service organizations like food pantries and nursing homes. Both of us felt God using our involvement in these trips to not only deepen our relationship with Him, but also in our relationship with each other. In fact, the last couple of days in Romania were, for me, the time when I was most affirmed that I would ask Julie to marry me (thank goodness she said yes... I thought she might!).

So now, for the story of last week, and the trip to Ohio, New York, and Rochester Hills...

Last Tuesday evening Julie and I left for Columbus, Ohio, home to Julie's sister, brother-in-law, nephew, all grandparents, and miscellaneous aunts and uncles. We had a nice brunch on Wednesday morning, and I got to meet nearly all of the family there. From there we drove on to Churchville, New York where my family lives. Julie met my parents and all of my brothers (I have 3) and my older sister and brother-in-law. She also got to see the sights in Rochester, including Wegmans and the abandoned Port of Rochester -- what a treat!

Last Saturday we left Rochester and headed on to Rochester Hills, Michigan, where Julie grew up. Confused by all the Rochesters yet? The drive takes you through Ontario, Canada to Port Huron, Michigan where you cross into the United States. This border crossing can typically take anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour. This trip: 4 hours. We traveled 6 kilometers in the time it took us to get where we stopped.

Don't get me wrong, our travel schedule was flexible, and in any other situation, I would have been fine. But the whole week we were gone I had a diamond engagement ring hiding in my Adidas duffel bag, just waiting to be received by a beautiful young woman. My plans were being supported by Julie's parents who knew what would take place once we got to Rochester Hills. I will now detail the different scenarios I had thought of, based on when we got to Julie's parents' house:

Scenario #1 -- "A bike ride to Rochester Park"

Ideally, the proposal might have taken place in Rochester Park, a place very special to Julie. The trouble would have been in suggesting that we go over there; Julie surely would have known something was up. Her mom had the idea of her suggesting that we take their bikes over there. That would have been great, but with the Port Huron wait, this was no longer an option.

Scenario #2 -- "Sunday morning"

We had plans to attend Julie's parents' church on Sunday morning, and one backup thought I had was to surprise her that morning when she woke up and propose then. Or I might have put the ring box on her pancake plate. This was my fallback option; not ideal, but it would have been special, for sure.

Scenario #3 -- "The front walk"

This ended up being the WINNER! Had Julie not wanted to go to the park on bikes, or if I couldn't have gotten her to go there somehow, I was just going to pop the question right there on the front walk.

We had dinner plans on Saturday night, and once we finally got into Michigan, Julie called her parents and they said to take our time and that they would go keep our reservation. Julie, not wanting to be late, suggested that we should go right to the restaurant when we got into town. My mind was going over every possible scenario and my best option was to get us back to the house (her parents knew that, and that's why they went ahead to the restaurant) and propose there. The problem was, the ring was in my bag in the back of the car. I needed to make an excuse, so I told Julie I wanted to change my clothes to look nice for her parents. She said we could go if we got back in time. I made every green light along the way, and we got back to her house. Julie said to be quick, so I brought in my bag and changed into jeans. I put the ring in my pocket and followed her out. She was walking in front of me and I said, "hey!" Julie wheeled around and I was on one knee. "Shut up -- get in the car!" she said. I then pulled out the ring and she was like, "oh, you're serious!" After a couple seconds of hugs, she said did say yes!

So there's the story, thanks to all who have been a part of it so far! I know I can speak for the both of us and say that your support has meant the world to us -- be blessed!

--andrew