Just over four years ago a handsome college student came in and observed my teacher in my history class for two weeks. In those two short weeks, he taught a few lessons, he became my friend, and he captured my heart.
From the moment I met Mr. Boyd, the answer was always yes.
Flash forward four years.
I woke up Saturday morning like it was any other day. But little did I know I was about to get the surprise of my life only hours later. Noah and I had plans to go visit one of my college roommates with some other friends before she leaves to serve with Youth Works for the summer, so Noah was going to pick me up late in the afternoon.
He always lets himself in the garage if I'm not downstairs, so I was confused when my mom called upstairs to tell me that she thought he was at the front door. Moments later she opened the door and told me that someone was here to see me. Confused, and having absolutely no idea who or why someone would be here to see me, I came downstairs and pulled the door open to see one of Noah's college roommates standing in my house.
"What are you doing here?!" I gave him a hug and repeatedly said "you're in my house. I can't believe you're in my house!"
He told me he just drove up and that he thought he'd stop in, and that he talked to Noah and was gonna take me to dinner. "Go get your shoes," he told me. "We're going on a date." Still baffled, I grabbed my things and he walked me to the car. I crawled in and noticed a Go Pro attached to the windshield, but didn't think too much of it. It was very like JC to show up out of the blue, so I naturally assumed we would meet up with Noah somewhere and the three of us would hang out, and possibly still go to Hannah's.
So here we were, JC and I driving down the road, catching up on life (in the mean time I subtly notice that we're in my grandparents' minivan) and I just kept telling him I can't believe he's here. About five minutes into our drive, I saw someone standing on the side of the road up ahead. And suddenly, I recognized him. "Oh my goodness. Is that Justin?"
There's Justin, the hitchhiker, stranded on the side of the road (these pictures were taken earlier by the girls as the guys were dropped off). JC offered to give him a ride, he hopped in, and at this point I was totally shocked. As soon as I saw Justin, something clicked, and it hit me. They're all gonna be here.
We kept truckin' up the road, and sure enough, out in front of my home church, Steven is doing yoga out by the road. Baffled, I laugh out loud, hardly able to believe this was actually happening and all of Noah's best friends kept showing up one at a time.
As we kept driving, I explained to the other guys what had happened the past fifteen minutes (as if they didn't already know, silly Rys) and before long, we were headed toward an elementary school playground. "...Is that Matt...?" Hanging upside down from the monkey bars... It was Matt.
Around this point, it's all sinking in, and I quickly sent a text to my dear friend, saying only "Oh my gosh I think it's happening." (I then put my phone away and didn't get her reply until later, but it was fine because she already knew way more than I did.)
We kept driving on these back roads, catching up with one another, while I still couldn't believe I was really in a minivan with Noah's best friends. Before I knew it, JC asked me if I was thirsty, and I looked up to see Trey at a lemonade stand. He excitedly ran over to greet us and brought us all lemonade, before accepting the invitation to jump in and join us.
With the direction we were headed, by this point I had a pretty good idea where we were gonna end up. We turned onto a bumpy old back road and chugged up the hill toward one of my favorite places on earth. The Pond. One of Noah's and my favorite places to spend summer nights. Up ahead, I spotted Noah standing at the end of the lane, smile spread wide across his face, waiting for us. He opened the door and told the guys he's going to steal me for a bit. They gave me an envelope with the instruction not to open it yet, and Noah and I set off hand in hand down the long lane toward the Pond.
I told him how crazy this all was and explained my utter shock when I opened the door to find JC standing there. My heart was so full of joy. We walked and talked as we made our way out around the Pond, when all of a sudden my shoe was untied, so he, being the gentleman he is, bent down and tied it for me (which was ironic, because back before we officially started dating, he was so excited to tie my shoe for me at a baseball game. What a sweetheart.).
He led me to the dock and we sat down; he pulled out a memory book I'd made him a few months ago, full of pictures from throughout our relationship. I'd given it to him right before I drove back to school one night, so we'd never actually looked at the whole thing together, so he told me he thought it would be fun to look back at all these memories. We paged through the book, smiling and reminiscing an abundance of incredible memories from the past four years. As we finished the book, he smiled then told me I could stand up and open the envelope. I pulled out a page that had two pictures of all the guys, with the words, "Maryssa, say yes!!" and all their signatures.
Randi and Hollie came out of hiding with their cameras (they are the best, poor Hollie was pretty much laying in the weeds and grass to stay hidden, and they both were slightly covered in mud) and captured more memories for us.
Noah announced that we had reservations for dinner, and the nine of us went out to celebrate. Afterward, he told them we'd stop by to see my parents quick before we meet them back at the house. I texted my roommate to let her know that we wouldn't make it to her house after all and that we got engaged. Once we got home, my parents ran out to greet us with great excitement. We went inside and were joyously welcomed by my grandparents. Mom told me that Braden was downstairs with his baseball team, who had all been getting together that night, and that we should go tell him. I asked if she could just tell him to come up, since we were all upstairs, but Noah said we could quick go down to see him.
We went downstairs, I opened the door, and there, in the basement, were all our family and friends, waiting for us. All the guys and Randi and Hollie had hurried home before us, and Noah's and my family were all there to surprise me. I was so surprised to see all my favorite people there waiting to surprise and celebrate with us. I was blown away that not only had Noah intricately planned out every meaningful detail of our engagement and involved his best friends, but that he arranged for our loved ones to surprise me when we got home.
There was an abundance of joy, celebration, hugs, and delicious food. Noah's dad (aka my future father-in-law—how cool is that?!) jokingly said "wait till you see what's NEXT!" I laughed and continued on with the party, when, a little bit later, someone told me to turn around. I turned and looked up to see the door open and all my college roommates and friends from school walk in! I was so baffled. My heart was so full, I just kept saying "my heart is bubbling over with joy, I can't believe you all are here!"
The night truly was the best of my life. I had no idea this was the night it would all happen. With each wave of surprise, my heart just spilled over more and more. Noah blew my mind and made me feel so so loved. We were overwhelmed with the love and joy of all our special ones, and are so so excited to be officially planning our wedding and anticipating our marriage. I was so blown away; it meant the world to me to have everyone there to celebrate and share in the special night with us. Ah wow. I am so blessed to be marrying the sweetest, most caring, thoughtful, adventurous, patient, loving, godly man. And I'm pretty dang excited to be his wife. The most exciting thing? The best is yet to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment