our engagement story.

I stood in the white snow, peering down a forest trail that was decorated with fairy lights and candles in mason jars. I had been brought to this place, just off of Fox Drive, under the impression that I would be looking at Christmas lights with my lovely girlfriends.

In the dim light, I made out the figures of two people standing on the path ahead. As I walked closer I realized I knew them, my dear friends Nova and Nathan. I walked closer to them and they began to single me out, they had chosen the word “wild” to describe me and this word was cast in shadows upon the tree behind them. They spoke to me of lovely things, about our friendship and about things they saw God doing in me. They prayed for me and I walked on, down the path, enchanted by the forest. At the next stop, Paige and Christine spoke to me, the word “unique” cast upon the tree behind them. As I traveled on down the path, they stayed behind. Next was Hannah with a note from my lovely LeeAnna, the word “admirable” appeared on a tree there. And still, I walked on. Just my Jacki, my lifetime best friend, and I left. As we followed the candles, the sound of Old Pine danced upon our ears. Jacki stopped me before we turned a corner. She read me notes from my loved ones which brought me to tears: Jayme and my brother, James. This tree said “in my heart”, a quote from my brother’s letter to me, which naturally brought me to tears. Last, Jacki spoke to me softly about the lives we had shared together and about Christ, He who we had found together and who had kept us walking together all these years. We walked further, our feet crunching in the snow. There was Andrew, underneath a tree that was lit up by fairy lights. Jacki hugged me, and she let me go.

I walked to Andrew, alone now. We stood under the tree. He began to speak to me about God and about our relationship. He spoke of our future and of our mission to glorify God—and how he wanted to live his life with me, doing radical things for the Kingdom of God.

He got down on one knee and opened a small box. Inside was a small wooden fox that he had carved. On it, it said “marry me?” Foxes have always been one of Andrew’s favorite animals. When he was a young boy, about five, he had a dream that he still remembers vividly to this day. In the dream he was following a fox through the forest with a girl, a girl that he always said was the girl he was going to marry. He told me, “I want you to be the girl I was following foxes with in my dreams. I want you to be the woman I follow God with for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?”

I said yes. He took a ring out of his pocket and told me that he had gotten a friend to gather twigs from my trees at home and he had gotten his brother and sister-in-law to gather a few twigs from his farm. He had them cast into gold, intertwined, with a diamond to make my ring. He slipped it on my finger. He told me that he wanted to use twigs from our homes because he knew our roots were important and no matter where we went, we would always have our deep roots.

We walked out of the forest, through the snow. All our friends were at the bottom of the bridge and began clapping as we came. I love my friends dearly and am so thankful they were there to be a part of this night and a part of the this new chapter of life that Andrew and I are walking into together.

**********

The time had finally come. After days of preparation and weeks of thought and 10 pocket checks during the Christmas banquet to make sure the ring was still safely snugged deep in my inner coat, it was nearly time to propose to my Abby.

She was being held up in Remedy with a few of her girlfriends while myself and several other amazing people, Calvin, Matt, Chris, Tori, Nathanial, Nova and Nathan, frantically hung lights down a forest trail, cast words upon trees, packed down snow, prepared music, and powered fairy lights around and in the tree that would stand over the place of proposal.

My hands were cold, but I hardly noticed this as I walked up and down the forest trail to make sure things were ready. After about forty minutes of setup I thought I heard the sound of other voices and my heart jumped at what was confirmed by Nova to be the arrival of Abby and the other girls. Matt hurried down the trail to alert the others that “the bird had landed!” and I made my way the lit up tree. There I waited with Nathanial, who was hiding amidst trees nearby ready to take photos. I stood thinking about what was finally happening and how much it felt like a dream, the very best kind of dream. And there I stood as I began to hear voices talking to Abby and the beginning of guitar strings reverberating through the forest as Old Pine, a song by Ben Howard that Abby and I had chosen as our own, starting playing. Then, with a sudden realization there was a moment of panic as I realized that the song would end before Abby would reach me, and I did not know whether it was on repeat or if the sound of Katie Perry’s Hear me Roar, or some other artist would soon interrupt and break the serene moment. I quietly voiced my concerns to Nathaniel nearby by and he carefully slipped over to the player and confirmed that it was on repeat. Thank you Calvin for thinking to do that.

Calm again, I listened to the sounds of friends sharing their love for Abby and of how incredible she is. Now and again there was a faint sob amidst the words. Then before too long there were two girls, Jacki and Abby, walking up the trail to place I stood. They hugged and then Jacki turned around and walked away.

Then, the most beautiful girl I know stepped towards me and we just hugged for about as long as moment like this would require of an embrace. By then, every word I had thought of had all but completely faded away. I was left looking at this woman, smiling in my heart but probably having the most idiotic expression on my face, holding her hands. I could not think of anything to say that would do any justice to this moment. However, there were things that had to be said, and there was a question I had to ask. I told her how I could not describe how much worth she has to me and to our friends, not with a thousand words on a thousand trees. I told her how much I loved how she values her friendships and that I knew that they had to be a part of this event. I told her how she reminds me to be a writer, a poet, and an artist and that she makes me want to make this life a story worth telling. I reminded her of the dream I had when I was five years old where I chased a fox through the woods with a girl I did not know at the time, and how I always thought to myself that that girl must be the one I was going to marry, and that I wanted her, Abby, to be the girl I followed the fox with in my dreams, and to be the woman I followed God with for the rest of my life. I asked her if she would marry me, and she said yes.