things to be thankful for...

As some of you know, this past Thanksgiving was quite eventful for Gordon and I. Our parents met for the first time as Gordon and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner at my place. Mr. and Mrs. Lee (Sam and Carol's parents) also joined us, accompanied by their great food...oh and their son, Peter =). We think the parents hit it off great so we thank and praise God for that!

The day after Thanksgiving, Gordon and I planned on celebrating our 1-year anniversary. Last year on the day after Thanksgiving, we had our "DTR" (defining the relationship) at Starbucks after dining at one of our favorite resaurants, Maggiano's...Rigatoni D...yum! We officially became girlfriend and boyfriend on Nov. 26, 2005 (I know...cheesy!).

During the first few months of dating, Gordon would give me a bouquet of flowers on or near the 26th of each month. After the first few months, though, there were no more flowers on our monthly anniversary. That was ok with me, though, because I shouldn't expect flowers EVERY month right? =)

Well when Gordon picked me up from the airport the day before Thanksgiving, there were 2 dozen pink roses waiting for me in the passenger seat. He told me he had more gifts for me in the back of the car, but I couldn't see them until the day after Thanksgiving, when we would celebrate our 1-year anniversary. When the day finally came, I had expected to spend the whole day with him. But that morning, he called and said he had to run errands with his mom and eat lunch with her. In actuality, he went to Clear Lake and had lunch with my parents to ask them for their blessing to marry me.

When he came back that afternoon, he just plopped down on my couch and declared that he was tired and wanted to take a nap before dinner (this is something he typically does). So while he was sleeping, I went out and ran some errands. When I got home, he told me that he wanted to exchange gifts before dinner and that my gifts were downstairs and I had to immediately go upstairs and change into my dinner attire. When I was done changing, he covered my eyes and led me to the couch. As my eyes were closed, he draped something over my lap. It was slightly heavy, so I thought to myself, "New winter coat?". When I opened my eyes, i saw a TON of red and white roses on my lap. He proceeded to give me a card that he had made. As I read the card, I realized that there were 12 dozen roses on my lap (1 dozen for each month we dated...to make up for not giving flowers every month). Woah...144 roses in my lap!

The card said that there were 2 other surprises. The second surprise was 3 words that he's been waiting to say until we were engaged..."I love you". I thought to myself, "Omigoodness...he said I love you...does that mean he's proposing today?!" We had gone pottery painting a few months ago, and he actually painted "I love you" and blended it into the picture so that I couldn't see it. So he showed me to prove that he knew he loved me a few months ago. What's funny is that, earlier in the day, I was talking to a friend and she asked what phase Gordon and I were in. I said we were in the "I want to say I love you, but I can't until we're engaged" phase. Ironically, we were finally able to say it that night!

The third surprise was a pair of mittens, because my hands are always cold. Gordon always gets me practical gifts...like slippers because my feet are always cold...a suitcase for my birthday because I was going to start travelling for work...a USB flash drive on our first date. So I thought to myself, "Eh...typical Gordon...always getting me practical things. Silly me, he's not proposing!" But as I slipped on the mittens, something shiny fell out into the pile of roses in my lap. I looked down and picked up a shiny diamond ring. I thought to myself, "There's no way he's proposing right now...omigoodness, he is proposing right now! Gordon took the ring from me and asked me if I would do him the honor of becoming his wife. I said, "Yes, of course!" But then he said he had to get down on one knee and ask, so he asked again, and I said yes again, and then he slipped the ring on my finger. And through it all, I didn't shed a tear...not because I wasn't happy, but it was all still kind of surreal to me.

Afterwards, we went to dinner at Maggiano's and chatted at Starbucks again...but instead of that marking our first date as boyfriend and girlfriend like one year ago, it marked our first date as an engaged couple =).

We are both so thankful for all of our family and friends who have been so supportive of our relationship and have been praying for us. And we are most thankful to our God, whose perfect plan for each of us has brought the two of us together and we pray that our union will bring God more glory and make more of an impact on His kingdom than if we were not together.