Fort Toulouse

Fort Toulouse has always been a special place to me. From camping trips, to walks to the point, to sibling pictures and more. It is indeed a great place that as of two days ago became way more special!

Those of you who have already heard the news are probably reading along saying "get to the point" while the rest of you are in for a big surprise! I have been telling people about this special event all day today, yesterday and the day before and am just now sure how to begin.

First of all, some of you need to meet a very special guy in my life - John. I met John in March of last year through the internet. We eventually begin to talk and then met in person. There are innumerable details I could share about this past year as I passed from knowing things about John, to knowing John, to loving John. I was amazed to find John to be someone I can trust and respect as well as someone I love. John is fun to be with, interesting to talk to and most importantly someone who loves his savior Jesus Christ. John's priorities in life are his God and his family (and now me!). But I would like to fast forward through those special weekends that we were able to spend in the same towns in Ohio, Illinois, South Carolina, Alabama, Kansas, and Arkansas to the most amazing weekend we just had here in Alabama.

I'm not really good at leaving out a lot of details, so here it is. I'll start with Saturday morning and then back up to some other details that make more sense in retrospect. Saturday morning started like any other day. I got up a little early for a weekend in order to go to the church workday. At the workday, I was able to be a part of the clean up crew with Pastor Phil. We pulled trash out of the addition and put it in Jame's truck and then unloaded the truck (in the rain) to the dumpster. Eventually, they were out of work that I could do so I went home.

After an hour of messing with pictures, I decided to call John. We had talked the night before and planned to spend some time talking between my two events of the day - the church workday and babysitting for the Paces. John didn't answer his phone. This was a little unusual, but I thought he was probably on another call or maybe at the YMCA so I left him a message saying that I hoped to talk soon and that I might go to the nursing home to visit Mrs. Langston or I might just stick around my house for a while. After a half hour or so I decided that John must really be busy so I would just go ahead and visit Mrs. Langston. I loaded up her cat and picked up the mail and drove to the nursing home. We sat and talked for 20 minutes or so in the hall. Then I looked up and saw John walking towards us with my mom and dad.

Here's what I was thinking. First I thought, oh, there's John and mom and dad. Then it hit me "There's John! What is he doing here - he's supposed to be in Ohio!" I said something inane like "What are you doing here?" and told him that I was so glad to see him. Dad then told me that he would take my car back to the house and bring Mrs. Langston's cat home too. I would go with John and Dad told us to have a good time. I immediately realized that today was special. John wouldn't just come down here without a big reason. I knew he bought a ring last weekend and that he just talked with my parents. . . so the dots began to connect in my brain. I knew that today must be the day that I would get to answer a very important question.

. . . My lunch hour is gone so I'm going to have to leave you hanging. More of the story will come this evening!