so my reunion went well.

So I went to Colorado and it was great.

A lot of great.

This whole week in fact? Great.

Best friend from Scotland comes to visit me. Great.

my wallace and gromit smile.

Got hit in the face by a gorilla (really). Great.

not this one.

Went to a Michael Buble concert. Great.

Road tripped to Colorado to hang out with some of my favourite people in the world. Great.

Got engaged. Great.

WHAT?

Got engaged. 

I am engaged.

Engaged.

To be married. To a man. Engaged.

Not 'you-can't-call-me-because-somebody-else-is-on-the-line-so-it's-just-beeping-at-me' engaged. But engaged engaged. 

ENGAGED. 

engaged..

It's a moment I've been picturing my entire life. Dreaming of. There were even greater expectations then there are in the book Great Expectations. 

I used to think that the perfect proposal would be on top of a roller coaster. He says his spiel on the slow way up and asks right at the peak; so her moments to think are mixed with blood-curdling screams, and a double dose of intense adrenalin. She would scream "YES!!!!!!!!" as they plunge 100000 feet (it's a large, American roller coaster) and the air fills her mouth, which is open, her cheeks agasp with air; flapping in the roaring wind. 

For me, there was no roller coaster. There was no screaming, but my face was pretty much the same. 

With mouth open and eyes wide, the entire time, my best depiction is something like this:

A friend asked me right after it happened, "how do you feel?" and I'm pretty sure I said, "I don't know".

What did he say while he was down on one knee? Um.. I don't know.

Luke and I tell this part a little different, but he said I took a good solid 10 - 30 seconds to answer him, as I stood there, mouth open like a cod-fish. (In my mind, it was more about 3-5).

Let's just say, I was in shock. 

I am in shock.

Good news is I said yes! Or "yeah!" I think...

And by the way he imitates it, I sounded a little Mexican.

It's safe to say I’m still incredibly overwhelmed, but here it is. 

My once in a lifetime, still can't believe that this is happening, OH MY GOODNESS I'M ENGAGED AKJDFHJHWFGJHERFGE RJG WIOWOWOWO IOEDH IUFH  story.

(and fyi; that's pronounced ak-jed-feh-wifgeh-jee-err-ferge-rajagee-wee-i-oh-oh-oh-oh-eye-oh-ee-duh-eye-ew-fah... in case you were wandering)

In the hot, sweaty humid and frizzy-curl-producing tropics of Townsville Australia, Luke and I met in January 2009. I was freshly 18, and wearing a dress that made me look like a strawberry.

There he was, in all his Alaskan goodness; working the crowd and telling everyone that because his Dad was the mayor of North Pole; he was in fact - Santa Clause. 

don't hate me Luke. first photo I have of you!

Our "school" had 40 something ish people, from 13 countries (I think?) and it was basically 6 glorious months of becoming great friends, meeting a great God, going camping for two weeks, and being sent off in teams around the world to bring Kingdom and love people. Long story short (I just accidentally typed 'love story short'.. cute..) it was great, and it was so great, and it changed my life, and it was amazing.

Fast forward however many years, and I'm moving across the world for this man. And this weekend, was our long-awaited DTS reunion. My Scottish Lyndsey was there, and we had others fly in from California and Maryland, then there were another 4 and their children meeting us from Colorado, in Colorado. There were 9 of us, and two littles, representing three nations. I was stoked.

Luke's plan was; the crew would set up in the most magical place, called The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

Our friend, Travis, would be sitting in a field, on a rock - playing us a beautiful song;  'You were made for me', while the others hid behind the rocks, filming, taking photos, and getting ready - with a sign and party poppers - for the words to go down.

and there he is! Sunny, sunny perfection.

We would walk (delayed by a clever 'oh we need to get snacks!' plan) down a few minutes later, hand in hand. I would be wowed by the scenery  swept off my feet by the glorious voice of Travis, and the whole thing would be flawless, wonderful, filled with sun. 

Needless to say, with our relationship - where nothing really ever works out the way we planned, and where everything is completely unconventional - it didn't quite happen that way. Did you know we had a homeless couple interrupt our first kiss because they wanted to poo in the fountain? Or when I picked him up from the airport on my birthday our car broke down, on the way home?

I'm telling you, unconventional.

And so naturally, five minutes before we arrived in the parking lot, it began to rain. And not just rain, but heavens-floodgates-are-now-open-it's-the-end-of-the-world kind of rain. Our friends, who were hiding strategically behind the rocks at this point, soon became freezing cold and soaked to the bone, and Travis - who was on guitar duty - was left strumming away in the down pour.

We jumped out of the car, sharing one umbrella and my boots filled with water. I didn't understand why Luke began to jog down the path. At this point our mission was to 'rescue the others'. How I thought I was going to do that, with one umbrella for 7 people, I have no idea. 

We rounded the corner and there I saw him, Travis, in the middle of the field, as planned, playing his guitar, as planned, in the pouring rain... not so as planned.

"Travis?" I exclaimed, running over and insisting we cover him with our rescue umbrella, "what you are doing? Where are the others?!"

He said they were around. Around?

He also insisted he played us a song he'd been working on.

In my mind, I thought he'd been writing a song, and just so happened to choose the worst moment of all time to show it off to us. 

I turned my head into Luke, and in the pouring rain, I laughed.

What a ridiculous moment. 

And then, things changed. 

Luke looked me in the eye, and took my shoulders. There was thunder. Travis went quiet. 

It was around here where my mouth flopped open and my heart stopped beating, and Luke began to say wonderful things.

Something along the lines of "nothing we do is conventional... I believe you are made for me... our friends are here... I love you" and then within two seconds, he pulled a ring from his pocket and was kneeling, in the wet, down on one knee.

And then came the 3-30 second gap (it's up for debate) and my Mexican "yeah!" and a whole bunch of hugs from some very wet, very happy friends. 

We all ran back to the car, completely soaked through, and spent the rest of the afternoon (once we all got back through the flash floods) in borrowed clothes, chatting, catching up, making international phone calls, playing lazer tag, eating noodles  and going bowling. 

We were engaged under a rock formation called the 'Kissing Camels'. That's great.

All the girls hung out the night before, and the movie I chose to watch was 'The Proposal'. That's Great.

Rain is my favourite weather. That's great. 

I just so happened to be wearing an outfit that Luke bought for me, on one of our anniversary's. That's Great.

I have had so, so many people ask me, "do you have a date yet?" And my answer is no.. not even a country.

Continent? I don't know.

Year? I don't know.

Month? I don't know.

Colour scheme, size, engagement party? I don't know. 

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

All I know is that I'm engaged. I'm an engaged woman. I'm an engaged woman to wonderful man. A wonderful man who picks great jewellery, stewards my heart, and got down on one knee in the rain.

North Pole and Sydney are about as far away as we could manage, we should never have met. It's a God thing. That, I know.

It's all a good, good God thing.

I can't do this without Him. I don't want to do anything without Him; it's all a God thing.

Let's be honest, I'm a little bit sad that Luke has more likes on facebook then me, but I'm pushing through the pain.

I'm kidding, I'm like a little girl.

"WE GOT ENGAGED TODAY!" I pretty much screamed at the lazer tag lady, "oh wow" she says.. "and you came to lazer tag.. that's cool" (she didn't think it was very cool).

We celebrated our upcoming forever together by fake shooting one another, multiple times. Un. Con. Ventional. 

But really, all praise and Glory be to OUR GREAT GOD!

We had the opportunity, on the day of our engagement, to be prayed for by the people who helped us start it all. Representing three nations, in a mountain state.

That's just.. great.

Understatement of the year, our reunion went well.