The Proposal

Here’s the next part of the story. The part where I come away engaged to the best guy in the world. I never thought I was THAT girl. You know the one I am talking about. The one that gets all sappy and has a cheesy expression on her face when she talks about her man. The girl that puts love songs on repeat. The one whose heart pounds a little when she thinks about her special someone. You can imagine the surprise I had when in dating Niel I realized...I am that girl. In fact, I am tearing up just thinking about the proposal. It was a perfect day.

Niel had planed to come to visit me in Xi’an on the weekend of March 23rd. It was the one year anniversary of our first date in Hong Kong. At the end of February he asked if I would go to Hong Kong instead of him coming to Xi'an. He said that we would probably have more fun there. (We have pretty much exhausted all the fun places Xi’an has to offer.) It was at this point that I started to wonder if he might propose.

I told my good friend here in Xi’an that I needed to guard my heart. (Yes, this seems to be a theme with me.) I did not want to go into the weekend hoping that Niel would ask me to marry him and then come away disappointed. I tried really hard not to hope, really I did. I failed. I really wanted him to ask. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands...

I had told two friends about what kind of rings I liked. In fact, I had shown them both a picture of a certain ring that I thought was beautiful. I actually looked at rings with one friend last summer while I was in the states. The other friend was the women who had had the brain aneurysm the year before. This friend had sent Niel an email in December letting him know that she could help him with ring ideas when he was ready to propose. She told me she had sent the email after the fact. 

About a week and half before I went to Hong Kong, Niel had casually asked me in a conversation what my ring size was. You know how I told you I was THAT girl. Well, my mind started going all over the place. I was a little sad because I thought there was no way he would have a ring by the time I went to Hong Kong for the weekend. I was also really excited because I knew he was moving in the direction of asking me since he wanted to know my ring size. I just didn’t know when the proposal was going to happen and to be honest, I was not very patient.

I called up the friend who had previously sent Niel the email and told her how disappointed I was that he must not have a ring yet and that the proposal I was hoping for in Hong Kong would probably not happen at that time. I was bummed. I then did something I should not have done. I just came out and asked her if Niel had ever contacted her about rings. She said he had not. She then went on to say that she really doesn’t like seeing me sad and that she would tell me if Niel was going to propose. 

My heart sank a little. I was thinking the proposal would not happen and YET I still wanted it to happen. I kept hoping it would happen, even though I was trying to convince myself that it would not.

On Friday, March 22nd I flew to Hong Kong. Niel met me and we went out for a late dinner. After dinner he accompanied me to our colleague’s house where I was staying. When I arrived at their place I noticed some beautiful tulips (my favorite) that Niel had placed for me in the room. 

The next morning I got dressed (Niel said to wear something nice) and went to Niel’s place. He made me breakfast. After we hung out at his place for a bit, we went to a nice Indian Restaurant for lunch. (We both enjoy Indian food.)  After lunch we went to a movie. We had gone to a movie on our first date one year before. After the movie we took a ferry to Discovery Bay. It is a little island that has many nice restaurants on the waterfront. We had dinner at a nice restaurant. 

All throughout the day I kept thinking how amazing it was. I was having so much fun. I did at one point look at his pockets to see if I might see a ring box. I saw nothing.

After dinner we strolled along the waterfront. When we got to a place where there weren’t any people, he asked me to close my eyes. When he said I could open them, he was on his knee with a ring in his hand and he asked me to marry him.  I said “yes”.  :)

Oh, the ring is beautiful, by the way. He picked out the setting and the diamond at a jeweler in Hong Kong. The ring is similar to the one in the picture and it is very “me”.  

That evening we returned to the home I was staying at. When I opened the door I noticed it was all decorated with red hearts and balloons. They knew Niel was going to propose and they wanted to have a little engagement party. My friend who had the aneurysm the year before was there with her husband as well. (She happened to be in town for an angiogram to see if the stent in her brain had healed properly.)

(By the way, my friend did lie to me. Niel had contacted her about the ring several weeks before our conversation but told her to keep it a secret. I believed her.)

It really was a perfect day. I feel so blessed to be marrying Niel!!