The Perfect Proposal

My daughter got engaged yesterday. Yesterday was Mother’s Day. It surprised all of us. We knew the proposal was coming but none of us knew when. It turned celebrating Mother’s Day into a greater occasion; it was a gift beyond all gifts.

All a good mother wants is to see her children happy—happy and thriving. Their happiness brings you happiness. And having said that, seeing my daughter have all of her dreams come true is the essence of what Mother’s Day is all about.

Who wants details? Proposals are so much fun and the details are everything. My daughter and I had gone out to celebrate Mother’s Day—going to my favorite spot for breakfast (getting a table right away because there were only two of us!), and then off to the movies.

After the movie my daughter had a text on her phone from Dad, “Where are you guys?” I had left my phone at home because I didn’t want to be distracted from time with my daughter. Monica handed me her phone to call my hungry-after-church-pastor-husband. He said with a level of urgency, “Where are you? We are hungry and want to eat.” I was a bit confused, because after all, it was my day and I didn’t understand his anxiety.

As soon as we got into the house Hubby pulled me aside and said, “Kyle is proposing today.” All the urgency and anxiety was now understood. He needed to get us home without tipping off our daughter.

I went into her room. She had found a letter Kyle had lovingly placed for her to see. Monica was crying before even opening it. “Mom, I didn’t expect this today. It’s Mother’s Day; it is supposed to be about you.”

“Honey, this is perfect! I love that he chose today.” We hugged. We cried.

And then she began to read the first of 7 letters, beautiful letters from Kyle. I walked to the front of my house and looked out my kitchen window. He was standing patiently waiting for her to get through all of his letters. She was on the first one and the rest were all hidden in her room, and no he didn’t “break and enter” our home. He had gotten a key from my husband.

I began to help her find the other letters hidden around her room. Her dad even got in on the search and we found all 6. She read each one and at the end of the sixth it said the final letter was on her car. You see, before their first date he had left a note on her car, and now the date letter turned into a proposal letter. So beautiful!

She took a deep breath and walked out the front door. The proud parents ran to the kitchen window. Little brother took the living room window. My husband videotaped through our lousy view via our window. We watched as they embraced. We watched him get down on a knee. We wished we had trimmed the tree, which partially blocked our view. We sang the lyrics “shine bright like a diamond” together. We had a mom/dad moment, not much different from the day God placed her in our arms for safekeeping—for kingdom keeping.

When the newly engaged couple walked into our home there were tears and hugs, tears for she and me at least. The guys looked on probably not completely understanding the emotional bond between mother and daughter. The rest of the day was a celebration.

The sweetest blessing I received came from Kyle’s mom in a text that read, “We are so blessed to have Monica join our family. Thank you for raising an amazing daughter to become Kyle’s wife, partner, and helpmate.” I wept.

This day brought me back to a time long ago, a time when two kids found each other…over 32 years ago. We didn’t know how to be adults. We didn’t know how to love. We didn’t know how to be a husband or a wife. All we knew was that we wanted to spend life together. And we were going to figure it out together.

He said, “Let’s get engaged.” There were no bells and whistles. There was no ring. There was no formal proposal. But there was love and a commitment that lasted beyond anything we could comprehend at the time. It was two kids figuring it out together.

And it was perfect. It was the perfect proposal.

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