Engaged

On December 27th, Mike and I went out for a dinner at a restaurant called Clara's on the River in downtown Battle Creek. Mike told me that he made reservations at 8pm but that we were going to get there an hour early to walk around and look at some Christmas lights. Michigan weather would have it that on that day it was 60* and raining. So we left and drove the 25 minutes. When we got there we found that there were about 4 blocks without power. This included the Christmas lights too. So, in the drizzle Mike and I walked around the river and looked at the unlit lights. I was beginning to get a little perturbed that he kept insisting on walking around outside in the rain. After a few moments we began to hear a drunk man singing outside. Then, we got tired of walking around but still had 45 minutes before our reservation. We drove out to Barnes & Noble to walk around there for a while. We left there and then went to the restaurant.

By this time, Mike was really quiet and wouldn't talk about much. I knew that he was distracted, but I couldn't get him to talk about anything. We went ahead and ordered our food and left 45 minutes later. I got more frustrated with Mike because he wasn't talking and we were rushing through the night when we had nothing else to do.

When we left the restaurant, we headed back to Kalamazoo. Mike pulled off the highway and drove to a park/parking lot not far from the highway. He circled around and parked his truck, turned the dome lights on. I asked him what he was doing and he said that he was going to do what he should've done a long time ago. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a box with a ring inside. He explained that the ring was his great-grandmother's and that his dad used it to propose to his mother. He then asked me if I would marry him and I of course said yes.

Well, the ring didn't fit! Mike had this wonderful plan to propose by the river with snow on the ground and Christmas lights on, followed by a nice dinner. However, nothing went the way it was planned.

The next day Mike and I shared the information with our church. He began with, "So...Melissa and I have been dating for a while...." And that's how we made it to where we are today.