Saturday, May 21, 2016

Engagement Day


May 7, 2016

9:30am I was just waking up when he called. I remember thinking “why is he calling me this early?” We had plans that day to go to visit his family and do some shopping on the way. But he told me that I needed to wear something dressy-casual and comfortable shoes for walking. I said “OK,” hung up the phone and proceeded to freak out!

At 11am Mike picked me up and we drove into downtown Philadelphia. I thought to myself, “hmm yeah I don’t think we’re going to New Jersey”. I had a TON of questions of course, but I kept my mouth shut and decided to enjoy the adventure. And what an adventure it was! He had the whole day planned!
 
This picture was from outside of the Independence Hall visitor’s center… we decided it was a very appropriate sign to take a picture with! Mike then posted it on facebook for everyone to see…. There were several facebook posts throughout the day so to a degree everyone else was in suspense too!

Our first stop was to pick up tickets for Independence Hall (I hadn’t gotten to go there yet and he and I both love history), then after we got some lunch at a café nearby we had a nice little tour of Independence Hall and took lots of pictures.

The next surprise was that he took me on a carriage ride around the old part of the city. This was something I’d always wanted to do and it was fun and rather romantic.


Next we spent some time going through the Constitutional museum, followed by a walk through the "Love Park". 


Later we had dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant. After we were done eating he slipped away to the restroom for a bit and was gone for awhile which of course only peaked my curiosity even more! He came back, looked at me and laughed saying something like “you’re so cute, you have no idea what’s going on do you?” And of course I didn’t, but I just laughed. He told me we had to wait a bit because it wasn’t time to go, so we just sat there and talked for awhile longer. Such suspense!!!! 

After a little stop at his car to get something (which was a large-sized bag – more curiosity!) he took me up to the top of the Liberty Place – a skyscraper with an observation area and beautiful views of the city.

Little did I know we had stalkers taking our picture.... a friend of Mike's got there ahead of us and captured the moment!
After a little while he had me sit down and out of the bag brought a scrapbook that he’d put together for me! He’s never done something like this before, but he did an amazing job! It was about our story, how we met and our first few months of dating. He had saved little things from our dates and left places for me to fill in with some of my own pictures and my side of the story. It was SO incredibly special and I loved it!




At the end of the book he had the ring box which he took out, said something like “well Amelia, being boyfriend and girlfriend has been great, but it’s time for a change.” He made me stand up, got down on one knee and asked his sweetheart and best friend to marry him!









Of course I said YES! (duh!)

It was an absolutely amazing day! He completely overwhelmed me by his thoughtfulness and creativity and made it a super special and memorable day! Here's a couple of shots from our engagement photo shoot!







Thursday, May 5, 2016

Seminary Update: May 5, 2016




Well this afternoon I had my very last class of my seminary degree and picked up my graduation regalia! This week has been bittersweet... I love learning, I love being a student. I actually enjoy writing papers most of the time. It’s been an amazing year academically, spiritually and personally. I am so thankful for the Lord’s direction in coming to Westminster Theological Seminary; I have so enjoyed the experience, learned a ton, and made some good friends and some great memories!

I am just finishing up ONE more final paper tomorrow (Friday). I have finished my 30 page Independent Study research paper on counseling adopted (and troubled) children - if you're interested in adoption or in working with troubled children and you'd be interested in reading it let me know. I wrote it for my education and also to be able to share with others. I have 3 finals over May 12-14, and then I am completely done!!!! Graduation is on May 26! An update will be coming soon in regards to future plans (although I will let you all know that I have decided not to work with Harvest USA. Long story; I would have loved to, but don’t believe it’s the best fit for me right now).

Thanks for sharing in this journey with me, and for many of your prayers and encouragement! I thank God for you!