OUR LIFELONG CONVERSATION (PART 10)...

PART 10: A SNOWY PROPOSAL

the school year started off with a bang! evan entered his junior year at acu while i began teaching 18 kindergarteners. we were both very busy but somehow never struggled to find ways for time together. i still hadn't gotten a car so every morning my grandma, hazanne, would pick me up and drive me to school. then every afternoon evan would come and pick me up. as you can imagine i got teased quite a bit that i still got carpooled to school even though i was now a teacher and not a student. but i didn't mind it one bit. in fact i loved it! it was a huge blessing that ev and hazanne didn't mind doing it for me and i loved all the car chat time with each of them. i saved money from my first 2 paychecks then bought a car of my own in october. while it was nice to be able to drive myself places i really did miss the sweet arrangement from before.

that fall was our first time to experience "normal life" in the same city. we had loved the study abroad semester together but this was great in a different way. it was a semester filled with getting to know each others family and friends from home. we developed some special traditions in that season.

every tuesday night we had family dinner at my mom and dad's house. the dinner table consisted of my immediate family, evan, and his sister, mel (who was a freshman at acu). we dined on delicious home cooked meals prepared by mom or grilled by dad. we sat around the table sharing stories, laughing together, and making more memories. tuesday night dinners were such a gift to me. i got to extend my childhood memories of sitting at that table with my family for a little while longer. i also got to add the bonus of evan and part of his family being added to it. i loved watching them interact with sara kate and my parents too.

not only did i love witnessing evan get to know my family better, i loved getting to know his too. having mel in abilene with us for that year was a blessing. mel and i went for walks around campus together. while i was at work each day, evan and mel went to chapel together then made lunch at my apartment (since it was much closer to acu than evan's house). then at night the 3 of us spent countless evenings eating pesto pasta, going to tcby, then cramming onto my loveseat to watch movies together. we would countdown 'til the next tuesday family dinner or thursday bachelor night with natalie and kristin. through it all i got toreally know mel and see why evan loved her so much.

somewhere in between going to school and all that socializing evan and i had some serious talks just the 2 of us. one afternoon we were sitting on my patio and m-a-r-r-i-a-g-e came up. it was one of those topics that might have seemed too early to discuss, but it wasn't. to me there had never really been the question of "would we get married?" i just wondered "when would we get married?" we didn't really spend that much time talking about it just long enough to acknowledge we were both wishing that day would come sooner than later. i had always thought we would have to wait until after evan graduated to get married. at first, it hadn't seemed like such a ridiculous idea but the longer we dated the more impossible that plan seemed. i was so excited he thought there was a chance we might not have to wait that long after all.

september, october, and november flew by us. as december approached evan had a holiday proposition for me... would i like to come to snowy winter park with his family over the christmas break? after spending a long thanksgiving break apart, i had been dreading an even longer holiday without each other. so i eagerly said yes, yes, yes! little did i know that was not the only proposal he had up his sleeve...

next thursday:
PART 11: ANOTHER SNOWY PROPOSAL