There are two stories you are going to want to make sure you have read before this one. :) First, the story of how Jacob asked me to be his girlfriend, here. Then, Part 1 of The Completely Normal Day, here.

As we exited Avenida Pico Jacob asked me to give my brother a call to find out how we could get into his wife’s family’s gated neighborhood. When he picked up the phone he sounded stressed. “We are going to be there a little bit early so how do we get into the neighborhood?” He hesitated. “Well, we aren’t all set up for the party so can you guys find something to do for a half hour?” That’s weird, I thought. “Um… Okay. Well I guess we will see you in 30 then…” As I hung up the phone I couldn’t help but be annoyed. It wasn’t like him to tell us we couldn’t come early. And why was he stressed? It’s HIS birthday party! I voiced my annoyance to Jacob, “That was so weird!” His ears perked up, “Why? What did he say?”
“He made some weird excuse that they weren’t ‘set up’ for the party yet and said we can’t come early! Is it just me, or is that weird?”
“Well we will just find something to do for a little bit. I was hoping we could be alone at some point anyways.” Ugh. There he goes again, making the best out of any situation. As soon as we pulled into the neighborhood he parked on the side of the road and said, “Let’s just walk on the beach for a few minutes!”
“Really? I don’t want to get all beachy and gross. Let’s just sit here and talk.” He ignored me and got out of the car. For some strange reason I didn’t put up a fight and just grabbed his hand, making my way to the sand. I contemplated whether to leave my shoes on or take them off. After a few steps I was happy I chose to keep them on because there were little, painful rocks everywhere. As I focused on not tripping or twisting my ankle on the rocks a surfer passed. I remember thinking, HOW is he walking on these with bare feet?? After 20 more steps Jacob slowed down. I looked at him and he was looking ahead to the right. I looked that direction to see what made him almost stop.

The instant I saw the 14 sticks in the sand with black cards and photos of us on them, I knew exactly what was about to happen. Pure joy rushed over me and I couldn’t help but smile. I said, “What are you doing?” He responded, “Come on,” as he lead me to the first stick. The next 3 minutes were a dream. As I read the first card, emotion consumed me. The words were so beautiful, “Sweetheart, The following twelve cards each have a reason why I want to marry you.”

He is asking me to marry him! I had already known this was coming, but seeing the words written down was incredible.

Each step brought me to a new reason he wanted to marry me. Every one was so sweet.

I want to laugh and play with you every day for the rest of our lives.
I want to walk through the trials of life with you.
I want to raise a family with you! 5 kids and 2 puppies. You are going to be an amazing mom.
Each day I want to wake up next to the only girl I have ever loved.
Perpetual snuggling!
I want to fall more and more in love with you each and every day.
When I am with you there is truly no other place I would rather be.
I want to still be next to you when I am old, and possible bald.
Because I cannot imagine my future without you in it.
I want to live a life that is glorifying to the Lord with you. Yes, even if that means moving to Africa. :)
Because I love you!

Finally, the last stick. It had 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a written on it.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

He got down on one knee and simply said, “Christin, will you marry me?”

I nodded yes, slipped the most beautiful ring I had ever seen onto my finger, and gave him a long hug. I looked up from our hug and saw our friend Bronson Pate taking photographs and squeezed Jacob even tighter. He was a genius! I loved that he had thought of every detail and knew that I would love having photos of his proposal.

What started out as a completely normal day, ended as one of the best days of my life.

My version of the story is magical but Jacob’s story is slightly different. Come back next week to find out all that lead up to this completely un-normal day.