I have failed to mention thus far who my visitors were this past month. My girlfriend, Laura, came to visit and stayed the entire month. For the last week of her stay, her dad, John, came too. I suppose the most important thing I have to share about their stay was that although Laura came to Honduras as my girlfriend, she left as my fiancée. Yes, I proposed, in Honduras, on a mountain. I had purchased the ring before I left for Honduras and had been planning the proposal since about last October. I'll spare you the story, but it's all on Facebook if you're interested. Instead of the proposal story, I'm going to share with you a play-by-play of sorts. If you choose not to proceed in reading, let me warn you, there's some pretty embarrassing stuff in here that I can assure you, if nothing else, you'll get a laugh out of.
August 2009: I see Laura for the first time. I arrive late to my first small group meeting of the year just as Laura is introducing herself to the group. For some reason, I hear her say that she is studying engineering (I heard wrong). Clearly I was interested from the start.
February 2010: Laura is invited to play on the women's Ultimate Frisbee team at Auburn. I was a part of the men's team, so when she saw me at practices, she would greet me with "Hey, friend!" She has a way with words.
April 2010: Laura and I find out that we will be attending the same concert in Birmingham. At the concert, Laura sees me, and during intermission, comes to say hey. She was very awkward, but I remember what dress she was wearing, so….three points for Trey?
May 3rd, 2010: End of the year small group party. I ask Laura about her engineering degree. She's studying nutrition. Embarrassing. Our small group leaders found out that I play guitar and asked me to play a mini-concert for everybody. As it would turn out, all the guys left and I'm left playing to 5 girls. (I would later admit that I was secretly playing to her and didn't care all that much what the other 4 thought). Laura helps me carry my stuff out to my car afterwards and we talk for 20 minutes. Later that night, I ask her out (I swore I would never admit this in public, but here goes nothing) via Facebook chat. If that's not embarrassing enough, here's roughly how the conversation went:
Laura: Hey, friend!
Trey: Hey! What are you doing?
Laura: Studing
Trey: Well good luck. Hey I have a question: I have some chicken in my freezer that I need to eat before I leave for the summer. Would you wanna come over and help me eat it?
Embarrassing and awful. Yes. But she said yes, so….sue me.
May 6th, 2010: Laura comes to my house for dinner. I believe I thoroughly impressed her with the dry chicken, canned green beans (something I found out later that she doesn't like), and burnt dinner rolls that I served. My sister comes by my house to sign a Mother's Day card. She is so shocked that there is a girl in my apartment with me that she writes "happy birthday" instead of "happy Mother's Day" on the card. Laura and I talk until 4 in the morning in my living room. She leaves when I tell her that I have a final exam in four hours (which I got an A on by the way). We depart with a authentic, youth-group-approved, awkward side hug.
May 8th, 2010: Laura invites me to attend a dance recital with her (not exactly the way to my heart, but I obliged). We go to Cracker Barrel afterwards and played paper football (I won).
May 14th, 2010: Laura comes to spend the day with me at my grandmother's place. We didn't exactly define it then, but retrospectively, we picked this date as the day we began dating.
May 15th, 2010: I leave for North Carolina for the summer while Laura stays in Auburn for classes. What a great way to start a relationship with three months of separation! '
Labor Day, 2010: I tell Laura that I love her. I had told her before that I wouldn't ever say "I love you" to anyone that I didn't intend on marrying. Foreshadowing.
May 2011: Laura graduates from Auburn. I leave for South Dakota for the summer while Laura leaves for Uganda.
August 2011: I return to Auburn for my senior year and she moves back to Birmingham.
May 2012: I graduate from Auburn and move to Birmingham. Until this point, we had spent more time apart than we had spent together.
December 2012: I spend about a week lying to Laura while I'm preparing to purchase her ring. In case you were worried, she forgave me for that.
January 27th, 2013: I leave for Honduras for one year.
April 27th, 2013:
May 10th, 2014: Laura and I will get married.
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