BY: Sgt. Nate Danger Geist
It was so much fun, we proposed to each other all day long.
~Melissa Errico
It was a warm May afternoon in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, and my girlfriend Joanna carefully opened the presents that were on her lap. All eyes were on her... after all, it was her birthday party. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be with her on this day because I was deployed to Afghanistan with the United States Army. But even though I wasn't present, many other loved ones were, including Joanna's best friend who flew in from Arizona and my best friend, Matt. In fact, it was Matt who had really orchestrated the gathering: months ago, he suggested that the group should throw Joanna a birthday party this year to cheer her up; to let her know that even though I wasn't with her, she wasn't forgotten. And thus came about Joanna's birthday.
Joanna finished opening the last present and got ready to thank everyone for the gifts, but not before Matt approached her with a card in his hand. He offered it to Joanna, explaining that I had sent it to him to give to Joanna at her birthday party. Intrigued, Joanna opened the card.
Joanna, I know I already gave you presents for your birthday, but I didn't want to leave you empty-handed at your party... which is why you need to report directly to the secret hiding spot. Love, the Boy Toy
Joanna knew exactly what hiding spot my card was referring to. There was a spot in her house where I had hidden countless presents before: it was a small closet on the top floor in her house, just across from the guest bedroom. So, Joanna marched herself upstairs to see what the closet held.
In the closet, Joanna found a DVD waiting for her. It had implicit instructions to be immediately viewed, so Joanna popped in the DVD for everyone to see.
The DVD was a short video: the setting was the chapel in Gardez, Afghanistan, which was the chapel that I worked in as a chaplain assistant. Just a few seconds into the video, there was footage of me walking through the chapel door and strolling up to the camera to hold up a sign.
You have a surprise waiting for you in the spot we first met. Go get it before someone walks off with it! Bring everyone along.
Joanna knew instantly the "spot" that the video was referring to: it was the playground of Joyce Kilmer Elementary School. Not only is that where we first met in the sense that we went to kindergarten together there, it was also the spot that we decided to officially meet each other as adults in February 2006 when we were reunited by a series of very unusual events.
Within minutes, everyone found a car to jump into, and a convoy was headed to Joyce Kilmer for whatever it had in store for Joanna.
Everyone parked in the school parking lot and started speculating: "Isn't today a school day?" "What could be hiding on the playground?" "What if we misunderstood the DVD?" "What do you think this could be about?"
Within moments, these questions were answered for everyone. As Joanna walked up to the playground, she immediately saw and recognized what the surprise was for her on that warm day. On one of the playground's slides was the bright silhouette of a uniformed soldier.
In disbelief, Joanna neared the slide as my silhouette began to move. I slid down the slide, as I had done with Joanna so many years ago on that same playground when we were children. I emerged at the base of the slide and walked up to give a hug to a very weepy Joanna.
Joanna didn't say a word and simply dug her fingers into my side and cried her tears on my shoulder. I gently whispered in her ear, "I love you."
Shock began to set in for everyone else. They were personally witnessing the presence of a deployed soldier hugging his girlfriend on the playground, and yet it seemed all too surreal to be authentic. All of a sudden, I was no longer in the middle of a war; instead, I was in the flesh and blood right before them. It seemed a fantasy -- a fairy tale too good to be true.
I gave a round of teary-eyed hugs and then began to explain the circumstances of the day: I had been given fifteen days of mid-tour leave, which is how I found myself before my loved ones on this day. Slowly, things began to make sense for those still seeking clarification of the situation.
To even further enhance the surprise for Joanna and me, our old elementary school faculty members emerged from the school to witness the event. They were our original teachers and principal who had guided us so many years ago, and now they were gathered again to see us through on such a joyous event.
But that wasn't all. I began to reason aloud that I had originally thought this opportunity would be a great time to formally propose to Joanna, but I had instead made a promise to her a long time ago that I would only propose after two conditions had been met: one, I had to be physically present for the proposal (which, in this rare case, was a standard that was met), and two, I would have asked my future father-in-law, Chuck, for his blessing of the marriage.
At that moment, when I announced the stipulations for such a proposal, Chuck knew something that the others didn't: I had already gotten his blessing last Thanksgiving, during a four-day pass home just before I deployed. And so, it came as no surprise to Chuck when I looked into Joanna's eyes, got on one knee directly before her, and pulled a diamond ring out of my pocket and uttered the words, "Will you marry me?"
Joanna's eyes swelled with tears, barely able to muster a "Yes." And in the sight of our loving family and loyal friends, in the sight of our first teachers and beloved principal, and, most importantly, in the sight of God, we became a couple engaged to be married in the near future to live a life of love and joyfulness.
I slipped the engagement ring onto the finger of my fiancée, and then the two of us began hugging each other once again, holding onto each other for dear life as if this would be the last time we'd ever see each other again. But in fact, this was only the beginning of a life in which we would be with each other forever more.
Only, unlike every other moment up to this point where we saw each other as boyfriend/girlfriend, we would soon be seeing each other as husband/wife, just as God intended.
http://www.beliefnet.com/Inspiration/Chicken-Soup-For-The-Soul/2010/01/Understanding-the-Rules-of-Engagement.aspx?source=NEWSLETTER&nlsource=49&ppc=&utm_campaign=DIBSoup&utm_source=NL&utm_medium=newsletter
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