I received a very exciting email yesterday. My piece will be in the North Carolina Dance Festival!! I wrote about this in an earlier post and my worries if it would be accepted (go check out my post titled Beautiful Things. its all in there.). So, if you have read it, you can understand my excitement to be able to perform this piece!! There is still about 32 counts of music left to choreograph, which adds up to about 40 seconds or so. I'm just really glad that it will be in the festival. A great accomplishment I have been anxiously awaiting!!
I was reminded last night after rehearsal of something that I hadn't thought of lately nor has anyone asked about. I was taking Grace, one of the girls in my piece, home after rehearsal and she asked me how Matthew proposed. :)
*Ok ok ok, I know what you're thinking. "Jo, seriously?! This is gonna be a sappy post. Do we really all need to know this????" To that, I say yes BECAUSE I want to share with you what I felt God speaking to me from this story so hang in there and get through all that "sappy" stuff. :)*
SO!! This is the story of THE proposal:
Matt and I had not been dating for no longer than 3.5 months. Some would say that is really quick to get engaged but we both knew that day would come from the first day we hung out. I had known even before I officially met him that he was the one!! I remember specifically coming into church the summer of '10 and seeing him walk in. He didn't sit too far from us. In the middle of worship, I glanced at Matt and as if God was sitting right next to me, I heard him say, "Just wait. That's the one."
I laughed. Oh yes!! I laughed out loud!! Ya see, at this point, I had sworn off the entire male race (yes, they are a race ;-p). So, for God to tell me that, I had to laugh. Of course I found him attractive!! But I was set that there was NO WAY I was going to have anything to do with him.
A few months past and every time I saw him at church, I was reminded to just wait because that was the one. I told God that He would have to do something pretty freaking big for me to be ok with that idea!! Above that, I was NOT about to do anything to try and get this kids attention. No way!! No sir!!
Well. Don't ask God to do something if you don't really want it to happen!! I walked into church on that wonderful day and there was Matthew, talking to several people, one of them being Katherine Freshwater. As I walked past them, Katherine grabbed me and gave me a hug saying, "Hey Jo!! It's so good to see you. Have you met my friend Matt????????" Needless to say, I wasn't sure what to do. Run away and hide or stand there and shake the kids hand?? I chose option B. We talked for a couple minutes and then I went in and found a seat. Didn't talk to him after service which was a little disappointing but I know now that it was a good thing. I found him on Facebook later that afternoon and we started chatting. He asked me out to dinner for that evening and picked me up on his motorcycle. We went to Tower 7 in Wrightsville Beach and then after dinner, walked out on the beach and talked for almost 3 hours. About 2 weeks later, we were "official." :)
*I needed you to give you a recap of how we met so you could understand the actual proposal part. Hang in there, that part is next.*
I had told Matt that Valentine's Day was probably the worst idea of a "holiday." I think it's just a day that Hallmark came up with personally. I think it's sweet to get flowers and chocolates but on Valentine's day, it's like those things are expected. Don't give me things expected. I like to be surprised. I hate knowing what I'm going to get. On top of that!!!! Being proposed to on Valentine's Day is probably an even more cliche that I didn't want to have any part of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Matthew knew all this. He knew my feelings for Valentine's Day and all the things that go with it. If you do something for me, you better make it different and so way out of the ordinary.
Well, Valentine's Day was on a Monday last year. Both of us of course had to work and thankfully I was only working that day. While I was at work, he sent several of the senior girls from Coastal to bring me a dozen Tulips. After I left work, I had to be at the studio to teach and in the middle of class, he stopped by and left me a box of chocolates that had a note saying, "I know you don't like Valentine's Day but I still wanted to do something special for you. I love you." Then I got a text telling me to come over to his house after I got done teaching because he was making dinner and had bought tickets to see The King's Speech (Those tickets were for the 9pm showing of The King's Speech. I didn't really think much about that actually.).
He made me steak, a baked potato, and asparagus. Absolutely delicious!! :) After dinner, we headed out to Mayfaire for the movie. I heard really good things about this movie so I was pretty excited about it. It was a long movie so by the time we got out it was about 11:45. We started heading home and instead of going straight through the light, he took a left and headed towards Wrightsville Beach. I was a little confused and asked where he was going. He said, "I thought it would be fun to go to back to the place we had our first date."
OK!! This is where the flags started showing up for me. HOWEVER!! I again pushed it out of my mind because he KNEW how I felt about Valentine's Day proposals. I just played it up as he was trying to be sweet and do something special for me.
So, we get to the beach and walk out on the sand. It was a beautiful full moon that night I remember. The sand was a bit cold for me to sit on so he offered to let me sit in his lap (precious, I know. Ha!!). We sat there for a little bit and chatted about that first date and I was reminded by something at that moment. On our first date while talking the night away, I had explained to him why I loved the beach so much. Ya see, the beach is just so awesome to me. From where we live, its the first place that sees the sun and moon. It's where I spend so many summer days. I find it a very peaceful place. Beyond that, it's where God gives me little gifts. Just about every time I go to the beach, whether to play or walk, I always get a gift from God. I see dolphins, find a really awesome shell, hear him whisper to me, see a shooting star, or a number of other cool things. Well, on our first date we had talked about what our names mean.
Do you know what "Matthew" means??
Matthew means - Gift of God.
As I sat on the beach during our first date, Matt reminded me of this and I remember turning my head because I was about to cry. As we sat on the beach Valentine's night, I was reminded of this and told him how special that moment was for me during our first date. A few moment later he asked if I was ready to leave and so I stood up facing the water. WHICH!! Of course gave him the right amount of time to quickly get to his knee. :) As I turned around, there he was, on his knee.
I said, "What are you doing?!?!"
He replied with, "Hi."
*Hi?!?! HI!!!!!!! What in the world is he doing...???*
I said again, "What are you doing!!!!"
"Well.....uhmmm......."
"Matthew, what are you doing?!?!"
He pulls out his phone to see the time and says, "Well, it's 12:01 and you said not on Valentine's Day so it's technically not Valentine's Day anymore. And so I've been thinking and I've decided that I want to spend the rest of my life with you..............Jo, will you marry me???"
I was absolutely speechless. I didn't know if I was going to cry or say no because to me it was still Valentine's Day or was I supposed to jump in his arms like the movies?!?! So what did I do??
I simply grinned from ear to ear and nodded my head yes.
He stood up, embraced me, and gave me a kiss. In all the excitement, he forgot to give me the ring!!! He quickly pulled it out of his pocket (the box was rather big for one piece of jewelry but I do still have that exact box.) and slipped it on my finger. It was too big so we had to get it re-sized. He proceeded to tell me that he had gone to the jeweler and explained to him what he wanted and the jeweler didn't have anything like what he explained so they had to send it off and get it custom made. That is special to me for sure. No one has my ring!!! :)
I tell you this story because I was reminded last night of something. As I was telling this story to my friend Grace, God gently reminded me how much I meant to him. He longs for us to be in relationship and so madly in love with him. There were three verses that came to my mind:
Song of Solomon 4:9
"You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes."
Verse 16
"This is my lover, this is my friend."
And 7:10
"I belong to my lover, and his desire is for me."
Matthew was a gift to me and I a gift to him. I realized that the way God sees our marriage was the same way He wants my relationship with Him to be. God wants to give me so much more than I can dream or dare to imagine. I have stolen His heart just by being me and He wants to steal my heart. I belong to Him and His desire is for ME. For ME!! Of all people!! He desires me!! This revelation hit me so hard last night that I couldn't stop grinning. It was like I had been proposed to all over again. During this fast, I have struggled with things that I have not been able to eat. Today at work my manager put something out for us to taste and I took a bite thinking "oh I just want a taste." God spoke to me and said, "Taste and see that I am good Jo." Moments like this just remind me all the time of His love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness for us.
What is your love story?? Have you let God love on you today and propose to you again?? Has He made you blush lately?? Perhaps find some time today to let God propose to you again and fall madly in love with Him all over again. :)
A hui kaua......
I was reminded last night after rehearsal of something that I hadn't thought of lately nor has anyone asked about. I was taking Grace, one of the girls in my piece, home after rehearsal and she asked me how Matthew proposed. :)
*Ok ok ok, I know what you're thinking. "Jo, seriously?! This is gonna be a sappy post. Do we really all need to know this????" To that, I say yes BECAUSE I want to share with you what I felt God speaking to me from this story so hang in there and get through all that "sappy" stuff. :)*
SO!! This is the story of THE proposal:
Matt and I had not been dating for no longer than 3.5 months. Some would say that is really quick to get engaged but we both knew that day would come from the first day we hung out. I had known even before I officially met him that he was the one!! I remember specifically coming into church the summer of '10 and seeing him walk in. He didn't sit too far from us. In the middle of worship, I glanced at Matt and as if God was sitting right next to me, I heard him say, "Just wait. That's the one."
I laughed. Oh yes!! I laughed out loud!! Ya see, at this point, I had sworn off the entire male race (yes, they are a race ;-p). So, for God to tell me that, I had to laugh. Of course I found him attractive!! But I was set that there was NO WAY I was going to have anything to do with him.
A few months past and every time I saw him at church, I was reminded to just wait because that was the one. I told God that He would have to do something pretty freaking big for me to be ok with that idea!! Above that, I was NOT about to do anything to try and get this kids attention. No way!! No sir!!
Well. Don't ask God to do something if you don't really want it to happen!! I walked into church on that wonderful day and there was Matthew, talking to several people, one of them being Katherine Freshwater. As I walked past them, Katherine grabbed me and gave me a hug saying, "Hey Jo!! It's so good to see you. Have you met my friend Matt????????" Needless to say, I wasn't sure what to do. Run away and hide or stand there and shake the kids hand?? I chose option B. We talked for a couple minutes and then I went in and found a seat. Didn't talk to him after service which was a little disappointing but I know now that it was a good thing. I found him on Facebook later that afternoon and we started chatting. He asked me out to dinner for that evening and picked me up on his motorcycle. We went to Tower 7 in Wrightsville Beach and then after dinner, walked out on the beach and talked for almost 3 hours. About 2 weeks later, we were "official." :)
*I needed you to give you a recap of how we met so you could understand the actual proposal part. Hang in there, that part is next.*
I had told Matt that Valentine's Day was probably the worst idea of a "holiday." I think it's just a day that Hallmark came up with personally. I think it's sweet to get flowers and chocolates but on Valentine's day, it's like those things are expected. Don't give me things expected. I like to be surprised. I hate knowing what I'm going to get. On top of that!!!! Being proposed to on Valentine's Day is probably an even more cliche that I didn't want to have any part of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Matthew knew all this. He knew my feelings for Valentine's Day and all the things that go with it. If you do something for me, you better make it different and so way out of the ordinary.
Well, Valentine's Day was on a Monday last year. Both of us of course had to work and thankfully I was only working that day. While I was at work, he sent several of the senior girls from Coastal to bring me a dozen Tulips. After I left work, I had to be at the studio to teach and in the middle of class, he stopped by and left me a box of chocolates that had a note saying, "I know you don't like Valentine's Day but I still wanted to do something special for you. I love you." Then I got a text telling me to come over to his house after I got done teaching because he was making dinner and had bought tickets to see The King's Speech (Those tickets were for the 9pm showing of The King's Speech. I didn't really think much about that actually.).
He made me steak, a baked potato, and asparagus. Absolutely delicious!! :) After dinner, we headed out to Mayfaire for the movie. I heard really good things about this movie so I was pretty excited about it. It was a long movie so by the time we got out it was about 11:45. We started heading home and instead of going straight through the light, he took a left and headed towards Wrightsville Beach. I was a little confused and asked where he was going. He said, "I thought it would be fun to go to back to the place we had our first date."
OK!! This is where the flags started showing up for me. HOWEVER!! I again pushed it out of my mind because he KNEW how I felt about Valentine's Day proposals. I just played it up as he was trying to be sweet and do something special for me.
So, we get to the beach and walk out on the sand. It was a beautiful full moon that night I remember. The sand was a bit cold for me to sit on so he offered to let me sit in his lap (precious, I know. Ha!!). We sat there for a little bit and chatted about that first date and I was reminded by something at that moment. On our first date while talking the night away, I had explained to him why I loved the beach so much. Ya see, the beach is just so awesome to me. From where we live, its the first place that sees the sun and moon. It's where I spend so many summer days. I find it a very peaceful place. Beyond that, it's where God gives me little gifts. Just about every time I go to the beach, whether to play or walk, I always get a gift from God. I see dolphins, find a really awesome shell, hear him whisper to me, see a shooting star, or a number of other cool things. Well, on our first date we had talked about what our names mean.
Do you know what "Matthew" means??
Matthew means - Gift of God.
As I sat on the beach during our first date, Matt reminded me of this and I remember turning my head because I was about to cry. As we sat on the beach Valentine's night, I was reminded of this and told him how special that moment was for me during our first date. A few moment later he asked if I was ready to leave and so I stood up facing the water. WHICH!! Of course gave him the right amount of time to quickly get to his knee. :) As I turned around, there he was, on his knee.
I said, "What are you doing?!?!"
He replied with, "Hi."
*Hi?!?! HI!!!!!!! What in the world is he doing...???*
I said again, "What are you doing!!!!"
"Well.....uhmmm......."
"Matthew, what are you doing?!?!"
He pulls out his phone to see the time and says, "Well, it's 12:01 and you said not on Valentine's Day so it's technically not Valentine's Day anymore. And so I've been thinking and I've decided that I want to spend the rest of my life with you..............Jo, will you marry me???"
I was absolutely speechless. I didn't know if I was going to cry or say no because to me it was still Valentine's Day or was I supposed to jump in his arms like the movies?!?! So what did I do??
I simply grinned from ear to ear and nodded my head yes.
He stood up, embraced me, and gave me a kiss. In all the excitement, he forgot to give me the ring!!! He quickly pulled it out of his pocket (the box was rather big for one piece of jewelry but I do still have that exact box.) and slipped it on my finger. It was too big so we had to get it re-sized. He proceeded to tell me that he had gone to the jeweler and explained to him what he wanted and the jeweler didn't have anything like what he explained so they had to send it off and get it custom made. That is special to me for sure. No one has my ring!!! :)
I tell you this story because I was reminded last night of something. As I was telling this story to my friend Grace, God gently reminded me how much I meant to him. He longs for us to be in relationship and so madly in love with him. There were three verses that came to my mind:
Song of Solomon 4:9
"You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes."
Verse 16
"This is my lover, this is my friend."
And 7:10
"I belong to my lover, and his desire is for me."
Matthew was a gift to me and I a gift to him. I realized that the way God sees our marriage was the same way He wants my relationship with Him to be. God wants to give me so much more than I can dream or dare to imagine. I have stolen His heart just by being me and He wants to steal my heart. I belong to Him and His desire is for ME. For ME!! Of all people!! He desires me!! This revelation hit me so hard last night that I couldn't stop grinning. It was like I had been proposed to all over again. During this fast, I have struggled with things that I have not been able to eat. Today at work my manager put something out for us to taste and I took a bite thinking "oh I just want a taste." God spoke to me and said, "Taste and see that I am good Jo." Moments like this just remind me all the time of His love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness for us.
What is your love story?? Have you let God love on you today and propose to you again?? Has He made you blush lately?? Perhaps find some time today to let God propose to you again and fall madly in love with Him all over again. :)
A hui kaua......
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