YEAH. WELL. BOB'S YOUR UNCLE!

Hi everyone! We're back from London and WOW was that a great trip! I'm sure that I'll be randomly blogging about it for a while still...but here's what I think. Some of my readers are of the female persuasion and have been asking for all sorts of details about "the proposal!" Are you ready for all the dish!? Well, pull up a chair because here we go...

Actually, I should clarify first. I can't actually tell you everything. Remember last week when I said that those who know me well know that I don't actually share ALL the details of my life with EVERYONE? That's most definitely true here! hahaha... It's really important to me that I not share every last word of what Robert said and how or where he was standing or sitting or what I said in response and all of that sort of thing. Some things - were just not meant to be shared. Some things were meant to be kept between Robert and I, and the secrecy of those moments will make them even better for us many years...

BUT! I DO have this really awesome story to share with you that you will JUST love! And, if you've been using your thinking caps at all (OTRgirl has, I see)... you should be wondering to yourselves, "HOW did Robert get a ring?! Did he just take it his country with him before he left? Did he BUY one while he was there?" Now, I found out later that his entire family already knew about this, as did his entire team in his country, so... PHLBBBBB to you all for being able to keep a secret! But, for everyone else... check this out!

This April, one of my volunteers in my high school ministry, Danielle, came to me and said, "Angie, I need to get in touch with Robert, can I have his email address?" I said, "UH. Why!?" Danielle is prone to having very strange, but TRUE, words from the Lord, and often times come to me for confirmation of the words and encouragement to walk in those words...so it wasn't THAT unusual for me to try this line of asking WHY. At first she protested telling me why, but it wasn't very long before she just said, "Well, I figured I'd have to tell you to get it, so here goes."

"I have been praying, and I feel as though the Lord has told me that I am supposed to GIVE Robert an engagement ring to use with you if he would like it, for free. I have a very beautiful one at home that is not being used, and I feel like God has spoken to me saying, "that Robert is his chosen servant, dedicating his life to God, and that because of that, God wants to reward him with this gift to use with you..." and so...I need Robert's contact information to tell him that and begin making arrangements to transfer this ring to him. AND, oh yeah, you need to get your finger sized so I can have it resized."

Uh. Um. I said, "NO! Danielle! I'm not giving you his email addy so that you can do that! I'm not going to basically GIVE Robert a ring to use with me! I might as well PROPOSE to myself! NO!"

And so for about five weeks, we went back and forth about this, until finally I caved and said, "Fine. I'LL email Robert and tell him what you've said, and then since I know that he's going to say that you're a crazy bird, he can just email me back and say that, but you will have been faithful to at least offer it so God will be satisfied..." (See, I was going to write the email saying, "I know this is crazy, so could you just tell me to tell her to bug off...). So I did. And Robert - he wrote me back pretty quickly saying just the opposite of what I thought he'd say. "Sounds good to me. I love getting free stuff, even engagement rings. Please give her my email addy."

*Sigh* They were clearly up to something. Fast forward to last week, and also know that Robert has lost a bit of weight since being in his country, and so his sister was sending a few pairs of jeans with me to London that would fit him better. She'd brought them over the night before I left so I could pack them in my luggage. (Can you see where this is going?)

So we're in the Regent's Park (Queen Anne's Garden - mentioned in the previous post)... when Robert pulls out this amazing diamond ring and proposes! Astonished, and crying and after answering yes, it dawns on me THAT is THE ring! and I managed to mutter, "HOW did you get that!?" And he said, "YOU brought it! In my jeans! Mom sewed it into the pocket..."

I brought our ring...

And then later in the afternoon I asked, "Robert - when did you know? When did you know that you were going to ask me to marry you?" And he simply replied, "I knew that I wanted to ASK you at Christmastime, but I was praying about it and God said to wait... that at the right time he would give me a ring."

GOD said he would GIVE him a ring...and he did.