We decided (upon Ronnie’s suggestion) to hike McDowell Mountain, a mountain which boasts a 2.2 mile trail, one way, to Sunrise Peak. Under the guise of taking many pictures for his blog post Friday, which would be about our first hike together (McDowell Mountain) after he got out of the hospital in March. We made our way up the trail, stopping every so often to take in the sights and allow Ronnie to catch his breath. We stopped briefly at a lower city overlook and I thought to myself, “ooo maybe Ronnie will want to stop here,” as I was a little chilly and my legs were tired because I had run that morning. But Ronnie wanted to go to the peak, so to the peak we went.
When we got to the top, Ronnie seemed to be in NO hurry to go back down. He said how tired he was and how much he wanted to enjoy the view since he made it up there. As we sat on the rocks, Ronnie below me a few stones, with his back against my knees, we relished in how beautiful it was up there. We were not alone however, as we looked around we noticed another couple sitting about 50 ft away from us...making out HARD CORE. Talk about awkward. I joked about how in love they looked as I sat and picked at Ronnie’s face. (Which by the way, is why in the video I said, “Hey babe, where do you think that plane is going”...as I picked his face he kept trying to distract me by asking where I thought certain planes were headed). Ronnie kept saying that he wanted to stay longer...I, on the other hand, was FREEZING and hoping he would be done taking in all the sights soon.
After 30 minutes or so at the top, it appeared Ronnie had his fill and he got up saying, “Lets just take a few more photos.” I got up and stood where you all saw the video shot. You can see the rest of what actually happened on the video...but I will give you a little bit of my thoughts since those you can’t see. As Ronnie “tried to figure out the self timer” I did think to myself, “hm, that’s weird...is something up?” But I quickly dismissed my hopeful thoughts because earlier in the week he “managed my expectations” (as he said) by telling me that he had looked at some rings but that he wanted to get one custom made so it would be at least 3 weeks from the time he found a diamond. When he said, “Hey honey...” after his “third picture attempt” I instantly got a rush through my whole body of, “OH MY GOODNESS, maybe this is it.” I was careful to get to excited at first however, as Ronnie has acted like he was about to pop the question or had a ring in his pocket many times before. Once he was down on one knee, before I really saw his face, I thought, “if he’s messing with me I’m going to be so ticked” and then I saw his face, tears welling up in his eyes, and I knew he wasn’t messing with me this time. A lump came to my throat instantly as I realized this was the moment that I’d wanted for so long. A moment that would start a chain reaction of many more wonder moments together. I wanted to cry and scream all at the same time. I must say, I totally blacked out. I heard every other word because I was on overload as I was trying to take in everything...study his face, remember the smell, hear the words, bookmark the feeling (I was thrilled to find out that it was all on film, that way I had something better than my own memory to remember it all by). As he paused before speaking the words I waited to hear since the day I met him, I thought to myself, “shoot, did he forget to actually ask?? Should I just say yes??” My legs where shaking, I wanted to jump up and down...I waited. It felt like an eternity! But then he spoke the words and they sounded even better than I imagined. “YES!!” (or I think I actually said “yeah”)
You saw the rest...I wanted the moment to last forever. I no longer felt cold. I didn’t want to walk back down the mountain as we stood up on top of the world just the two of us. We hugged. We kissed. I screamed, A LOT. It was the best feeling I’ve ever felt. A feeling that I could never put into words. One of relief, that I had found my soulmate, and he felt the same. A feeling of excitement, for the adventure we were beginning together. A feeling of thankfulness, that God had brought this special man into my life, and would bless me so much to make him my fiance, and ultimately, my husband. My heart felt so full with love for a man that has changed my whole perspective on life and love.
As we made our way back down the mountain, trying to find our way in the dark a woman came towards us yelling, “are you the last ones?” She was in charge of making sure the last on the mountain got back down safely each night. And as we shuffled down in the dark I thought about what Ronnie had said when we were up there. He said he proposed on the top of a mountain because I help him climb mountains everyday...help him through the challenges he faces...and it was so true. Our relationship will be much like that mountain that we got engaged on top of. It would be a descent at times, easy and smooth. Other times it will be an incline, tough and tiring. But there will be awesome views from the top, a hand to hold, and a guide to show us the way when we can’t see the path on our own in the dark.
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