Love. True Love (An Engagement Story)

God is incredibly faithful and his timing is unmistakably perfect (although it doesn't always appear that way).

It was at NCC's Leadership retreat where I first said the prayer, "God, please provide a way for me to ask Amanda to marry me in October."

Even when I said it, I was shocked that those words came out of my mouth. A real Holy Spirit inspired prayer. And who am I to argue with the Holy Spirit? So I started praying that God would make a way for me to ask Amanda to marry me in October. I wrote in my journal and just kept praying. I knew a job would have to come first. Freelance is fun but something more stable would need to be in place before I asked this woman to marry me.

So I prayed... And prayed... And prayed some more... And prayed some more... And kept on praying and praying and praying, waiting for God to open the right doors and provide a way. But nothing stuck. There were lots of applications sent out. But not as many hits as I would've hoped. There were interviews... Lots of interviews but no one hired me. I was hopeful, frustrated, heartbroken, and still comforted knowing that God would make something happen. Plus, I had Amanda, who is without a doubt the most encouraging and amazing person I could've had by my side during this period of time.

All the while I started to put some things in motion. I knew that I wanted to make a scrapbook for the two of us of all the awesome things we were doing together, so I started collecting pictures Amanda would take and ticket stubs, drawings, any little thing that would make a great scrapbook. And then I had "The Idea."

If you know me, you know I am a little obsessed with Pixar. They make great movies. One of their finest is Up. Ellie's Adventure book would make a perfect scrapbook. So I Googled it. I wanted to buy the Up Adventure book for our scrapbook. And sure enough, you can buy one! So I bought one and started filling it.

About mid-September I knew we were starting to get into territory where it was going to be hard to ask Amanda to marry me in October like I'd been praying. But I knew I still wanted to marry her and if it took a little longer, so be it. So I called my friend Julie about a picture. The Adventure Book is awesome but it needed a little something extra. So I asked Julie to draw a picture of the Up house floating with the balloons and have it say "Will You Marry Me?" Julie was excited and went to work.

Side bar: Julie is amazing!!! She went above and beyond. She even Drew this picture, just because.

So we went to Alabama. And I knew after that week that I had to marry this woman and I had to ask her soon. So I took another step of faith and inquired about getting some money from a savings account so I could start looking for a ring.

The next day I got a text from my brother-in-law telling me I had a job. Not only was it just a job but it was a job in my field and something I could be passionate about and really make my own.

Are you kidding me? So now I had the idea of how to ask Amanda to marry me, the money for a ring, and a job!!!!!!

To be honest, I had given up on the idea that my prayer to ask her to marry me in October was going to be answered. But God's timing and mine are not the same and God decided that he would show up BIG TIME and make sure that prayer didn't go unanswered.

So Saturday night I took Amanda to dinner at Twisted Vines. Near the end of dinner, I told Amanda I had something that would work well with her Halloween costume. (Did I mean that SHE suggested we go as Carl and Ellie from Up for Halloween?!?!?!?!!! I seriously love her!!!!!) And I pulled out the Adventure Book. And when she turned the last page and saw the picture she just said "YES YES YES YES YES YES!!!!" So I pulled the ring out of my pocket and got out of my seat when she instantly grabbed me and starting kissing me. After a minute, I was able to get down on my knee and ask her to marry me.

I am so incredibly blessed to have Amanda in my life and I couldn't be happier or more excited that she is going to be Mrs Patton!!! :D

But it would not have been possible if a) God hadn't blessed me with this incredible woman in the first place and b) if he wasn't faithful! God is good!!! Even when it seems like he's not listening. He still knows what's up!