501 Days | Our Proposal Story
Josh couldn't believe it. After months of prayer and planning, he had finally decided that he was going to propose. Since the month of January was almost over, Valentine's Day seemed like the perfect moment for him to ask a beautiful girl from Michigan to be his wife. In an off-the-cuff moment, Josh decided to see how many days he would have been dating Andrea if he asked her to marry him on Valentine's Day. The answer? There are exactly 500 days between October 2nd, 2012 and February 14, 2014. He could not have planned it better if he had tried!
Or so he thought.
We were both traveling around the US at the time with the ministry team where we had met, and the middle of February would place us in the middle of a little town called Cabot, Arkansas. Family is important to both of us, and so it worked out perfectly that Andrea's family in Michigan and Josh's family in Georgia began making the plans to come down for the big event! It was also important for Josh's family to be present for the practical reason that the ring had been left safe at his home in Georgia while he was traveling. Thankfully, both families were available, and with the plan now firmly in place, all Josh had to do was wait until February 14th.
His plan was simple: create an elaborate evening filled with good food and fun memories over our years of dating, culminating in the moment when he would lead her up a staircase filled with tiny floating lanterns to a balcony where he would propose. Everything was going perfectly...until the moments he simply could not plan for began to happen.
Out of nowhere, the ice storm of the decade blew through Georgia, and Josh's parents along with their precious cargo, could not even get out of their subdivision, let alone their state. As Josh hung up the phone on Friday, February 13 after hearing the news his family could not make it out of Georgia, he slowly realized that his dream of "500 days" was no longer going to be possible.
But all hope was not lost! The morning of the 14th arrived and with it came a phone call from Josh's mom. "I don't know how and I don't know why, but we've been praying all night and when we woke up, the sun is out and we think we can make it out of the subdivision. We'll let you know! All of a sudden, the plan was back on! Although it couldn't happen on the day had dreamed of, "Five Hundred....and One Days" had almost a comical ring to it.
Thankfully, this was the last of the trials Josh had to endure, as the evening of the 15th finally arrived. Both families (and the ring) arrived safely in Cabot, and once the preparations were made, Josh whisked Andrea away on a romantic evening of memories, ending with him getting down on one knee and her saying an emphatic "Yes!" As we were joined by our families, we couldn't help but think how blessed we were to have this life and now to have each other!
So why do we share this story? Think of it as an encouragement that not everything in life will go the way you plan it....and that is ok. We absolutely love sharing this story with anyone who wants to hear it. We don't love sharing it because it was "hallmark perfection," but because of the crazy curveballs we had to endure to get to 501 days. Enjoy the chaos, embrace the change of plans, because someday, your story might encourage others like we hope this story has encouraged you!
J + A
