To My Best Friend

I remember being at church and my pastor, Andy, asking me to try and talk to new people. There were two new people, one being a girl my age, that I had not met before and I made the plan to introduce myself. Walking into the welcome center I saw them talking to each other so I approached them. I didn't want to interrupt their conversation and I am incredibly shy, so I simply ended up standing there. After about a minute, I decided to play it off like I was getting bread from the kitchen and I left. I never could have imagined then that I would be engaged to the beautiful girl two years later.

Though the first introduction fell through, we knew each other through church and bible study. Kailin and I had both been very good friends with Luke and Sherry Duerre and one week, they came to visit from Seattle. They did not make it to Emmaus Road in the morning but they were going to the Loveland church in the evening. That week I asked Kailin if she would like to go to the Loveland church because Luke and Sherry were there. She came over to my house and as we were leaving I asked if she wanted to ride with me to the church or if she wanted to follow me. Behind me my dad whispered in an authoritative tone "She is riding with you."

With the love and support from family and friends and those we look to for spiritual guidance, our relationship began to grow. This past winter I had the opportunity to go visit Kailin's family for the second time. The first day that we spent with her parents, we went to a movie with her mom and dad. When Kailin and her dad went to go to the bathroom, I took the opportunity to ask her mom if I could talk to both of her parents without Kailin. Her mom got a huge grin and said she thought we could work something out. When she asked me when I wanted to do it and I said whenever was best, I didn't think I would be talking to them that night after the movie. Kailin went to her grandmother's house and I sat down with her parents. When I started with "I am not really sure how to do this," her dad immediately replied, "That's probably how it should be." I also had the opportunity to ask Kailin's brother on new years day and with the blessings of her family, I started to think about when and how I would ask Kailin.

The day of our six month anniversary, January 5th, I woke up to go to work. Durring breakfast, I told my parents I was going to ask Kailin to marry me. I told my mom how we had joked before about just getting a twisty tie instead of a ring so we could save the money and just get married. While I ate, I formed a twisty tie into a heart-shaped ring and got a box for it and the diamond ring that I had bought for her. That night, I took Kailin to Bisseti's and then to the church. We sat on the stage under the cross and played nertz while One Republic's new cd played in the background. After two rounds I stood her up and hugged her tight. I pulled out the ring box with the twisty tie and knelt. I asked Kailin to marry me holding the twisty tie up and she said yes. I stood up and held her even tighter and then told her "We can't have people see you going around with a twisty tie," and I put the diamond ring on her finger.