Engaged!

On Sunday, October 19th, Wade surprised me with an EARLY morning proposal and a day trip to New York City!

He woke me up at 5:30 a.m. and read a couple Scripture passages about husbands and wives, and then just said "Kim, will you marry me?" I had tears running down my face as he read the Word to me, and then I just hugged him and finally got the "yes" to come out of my mouth and not just scream in my head :). He took out my mom's diamond ring and told me that we would go together soon to pick out my own setting for her diamond. Then he told me I had to get ready because we had a big day ahead of us.

I didn't know what we were doing, but I got ready and we drove off in his car, and I couldn't believe it when we pulled into the airport! Then we checked in and I saw the destination was New York City - total craziness :).

We actually got bumped to first class on the way there - nice - and then we arrived early for our first activity, so we walked around Central Park for a little bit.


My handsome fiance (!) in Central Park


Showing off the ring :)

By 10:30, we had made it back to Hunter College for church at Tim Keller's church, Redeemer Presbyterian! It was awesome to start our day and our engagement with worship and great teaching.


After church, we had reservations for lunch at Tavern on the Green. The picture above is on the way there, walking through Central Park again.


I had a very STRONG drink at lunch made of peach schnapps, mango, grapefruit and vodka. We learned that this was a restaurant much more concerned with presentation than with quantity, as Wade ate his 4 tablespoons of crab bisque and 1 waffle for like 25 bucks :).


After lunch, we made our way across the city to Times Square. It was busy and crazy and loud like New York is, but really pretty weather by that point - it had warmed up enough to feel great in the sun and chilly in the shade. While we were there, Wade was taking a picture of me holding up my ring hand, and this cute lady came up and said, "It looks like somebody just got engaged - do you want me to take your picture together?" She was so nice and took 3 pictures from different angles (not at our request - she was just so excited, she kept saying "and one more"). She said she was there celebrating her anniversary with her husband, and she just so excited for us it was so cute. As she was leaving, she said enthusiastically "Have a great day... and have a great LIFE!" Too funny.


At 3:00 we had tickets for The Lion King! Of course you weren't allowed to take pictures inside the theater, but the show was so amazing! All the colors and songs and amazing costumes - it was incredible, even with a screaming 2-year-old sitting directly behind me. The show was almost 3 hours long, so when we got out it was about dinner time.


We wanted to do something New York-y and didn't have a ton of time before we needed to head back to the airport, so we grabbed a slice of pizza at a little place and then got ice cream (one of our favorite things to do :)).


After that, we walked around for a little while longer, and passed Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.


By that point, we were getting REALLY tired, so we decided to just go ahead and get a taxi back to the airport. We called a bunch of family and friends while waiting for our flight, and then finally got on the tiniest plane ever, crunched ourselves in our 3 square feet of space, and made it back to Charlotte at 11:30 p.m., utterly exhausted and happy :).

It's still so surreal and crazy to call Wade my fiance and start to plan wedding details (out loud - you know I've done my pre-preparations behind the scenes ;-)). But I couldn't have imagined a better man to spend the rest of my life with, and I know my mom loved him and would have been so proud and excited for us now. His parents will make the best inlaws, and my dad gets another son-in-law to tip the male-female balance in our family his way.

Stay tuned for updates on the plans :).