“What if God has something for us?” - Ryan, many moons ago
We got engaged!
Here’s the story for all you romantics out there.
I have had a Florida beach vacation planned with my best buddy Casey and her family since January. Ryan’s family also invited me on their family vacation to hocking hills, but being the stubborn conservative prude that I am, refused to go on a family vacation with him until I was officially a member of the family.
4 days before my flight to Florida, I pack all my vacation clothes up and send them with Casey and her family since they were driving to Florida!!
3 days before my flight, I get a nasty head cold that sends me home from work and keeps me indoors for the next 3 days. Really?!
1 day before my flight sweet Ry took me to target for some super fun date shopping to try and lift my spirits, but I ended up having him take me home, I felt so yucky.
The morning of my flight I ended up in stat care instead of the airport. Boo, no Florida for me.
Side note - airlines offer NO grace for sick people that must cancel and/or reschedule a flight. I tried to reschedule or do stand-by, but no luck.
1 day after my flight, my devotion verse was from proverbs 19:21 - "People make all kinds of plans, but only the Lord's plan will happen." hm. ok God; there must be a reason I’m not in Florida. Cool, I can live with that.
2 days after my scheduled departure, thanks to my stat care meds, I was feeling better. Stuck at home, but at least I can breathe again. Glory! Best friend in Florida. Boyfriend in hocking hills. Mom has to work. Now what am I going to do all week??
Knowing the lodging at hocking hills had no A/C, limited sleeping space, and of course, is located in the woods, I wasn’t exactly sure about all that… (if you know me at all, woods is not exactly my first choice when it comes to vacationing) …so still recovering from being ill I drove alone to hocking hills with some major anxieties about the whole thing. I made a wrong turn. Was sweating even with the A/C on. I hate windy hills. Shared the road with a goat but finally made it to the front gate of Hide-Away-Hills Gated Resort Community. Ry had to meet me at the gate to escort me to the living quarters for the next few days. Even as I crankily followed Ry up and down the windy hills deeper into the woods I prayed that God would help calm my attitude and anxieties.
We pull up to this house, waaaaaaaaaaaay back in the woods, which requires one to travel down a hill at about a 45 degree angle for 40 paces or so, across a bridge and up another flight of stairs to get to the house. Sigh. It looked exhausting. Ry opened the car door and I tried to get my stuff out of the trunk. He wouldn’t let me get it. I snapped at him and retrieved a few items that I needed. Don’t worry; I said a little prayer about the whole attitude thing again. As we’re walking downward into the jungle, I mean woods, he’s holding my hand and I’m hanging on for dear life. He says as soon as we meet and greet the family we’re going out to turn around and go out for dinner. I’m seriously thinking, can I SIT DOWN for a few minutes first, geez! I think I even let him know that probably wasn’t going to be up for going out to eat.
We start to walk across the bridge. The whole family is standing on the porch about 20 feet above us, smiling down upon us. Ryan stops me before the end of the bridge, takes my water bottle from me and makes me put my purse down. I am super confused at this point!
The kids appear from the basement of the house with huge colorful poster boards that say “WILL YOU MARRY US?” I turn and look at Ry and he gets down on 1 knee and says some private stuff I won’t type here then asks me to marry him! Eeeek! Yip-pee!!
I said yes.
…then apologized for being cranky.
So I didn’t sleep much that night. I was so excited to be a wife! I did lots of thanking God for choosing Ryan for me and crazily enough shifting our 2 completely separate paths so they could cross and eventually become one. I prayed for his sweet, hilarious kids that I love and thanked Him for the whole Heckert Clan! My heart is grateful for preparing us up to this point. I also spent part of that night asking God to continue to guide us on the journey He has – just for us! If you would have asked either of us months ago if we thought we would grow in love as we have, I bet we would have both gave you a nice little awkward smile and said something about we’ll see what God has…
Next steps are fun and exciting and scary but I have confidence that as we keep God at the center of each of our personal lives and our marital life together, we will be covered by His love and grace and reminded to in turn extend it to each other often.
