Friday Family History: He Proposed

"Happy February 7th.  The best decision I ever made was asking you to marry me."

Those are the words I woke up to this morning.

Every February 7th, a red rose appears.

Twenty-seven years ago today, John proposed to me.  

We both deliberate thoroughly when making major decisions, and those deliberations usually take quite a bit of time--a fact belied by our relatively quick courtship and engagement.  We were no different than many other BYU students of the 1980s, though.  We met at the beginning of the school year in 1986, and were married a week after graduation in April, 1987.  

In June of 1987, John sat down at our computer and printed up, on a dot-matrix printer, the story of our courtship.  This is what he wrote under the heading, "Proposal":

I invited Kristi for a date Saturday, February 7.  On the way I told her that we were going to my house for dinner.  I also told her that it was not a meet the family night.  However, when I had asked my mom to cook a nice dinner for us, she misunderstood, and thought I meant for everyone, not just Kristi and me, so it ended up being somewhat of a meet the family dinner.  We had crab and some fruit salad I had never seen before, so I knew my mom felt that something was up.  After dinner, we went downstairs and looked at some of my pictures.  Then we played games and had some dessert.  After that I went upstairs and got a red rose which my mother had bought for me earlier.  I gave it to Kristi and we sat together on the basement floor.  I told her that I love her, and asked her to marry me.  Her initial response was "I can't believe it!" The next thing she said was "I can't believe it!" And the third . . . and the fourth . . . meanwhile I'm dying waiting for an answer.  It's funny, I felt good about asking her, and I wasn't very nervous, but I had never thought about what her response would be.  The only hint I was getting at this time about her response was her smile.  I knew that she was happy since she was smiling.  After what seemed an eternity, she said something which I thought might have been a "yes."  I wasn't sure.  The "I can't believe it"s still flowed.  Finally I had to know, so I asked, "Does this mean yes?" and she said, "Yes, John."

The best decision I ever made was in saying "yes" to John's proposal.  

I still can't believe my good fortune.  




Thanks for John, my best friend.