We wanted to celebrate dating for 10 months which would be occurring on January 12. However, both of us had busy schedules, and we were not going to be able to see each other on the day,

We said that we wanted to celebrate early and decided to celebrate on Thursday, January 11. I had returned to school after Christmas Break, but David had not gone back to Champaign yet. We talked about meeting after I was done with school, so he said that would pick me up and we would go to dinner at Cooper’s Hawk at The Arboretum in South Barrington.

We had eaten at The Arboretum the week before, and he had mentioned Cooper’s Hawk, so when he suggested the place to me, I thought it was a nice restaurant but did not suspect that anything was going on.

January 11 came. I finished working at school and quickly ran home to get ready to go out with David. One funny fact is that I had a quick phone call with my mom after school, and I told her that I was seeing David as we were going to celebrate 10 months of dating. She said, “Oh, that means you are going to have a good night since you will be with David!”

I agreed and did not think anything of it—little did I know that she knew that we would be getting engaged!

David came, picked me up and off we went to Cooper’s Hawk. We made it to the restaurant, and once we were seated, we began reminiscing about our favorite moments from our relationship of the last 10 months. This is something we would periodically do as we enjoy seeing where God had brought us and how His fingerprints kept showing up in our relationship.

The dinner ended, and David told me that we were going to get dessert at a chocolate place in the mall. I thought it would be fun, so I totally just continued with what he had planned, not knowing that anything was coming.

We left the restaurant and began walking around the outdoor courtyard area. As we were walking, David began talking and sharing how much I meant to him. At this point, I began to get butterflies, but I was telling myself that nothing was happening and that he was just talking to me. We turned the corner of the courtyard and stopped in front of a horse statue.

Later, I learned that this was an arranged gathering place, and it was so beautiful as it was decorated for winter and there were winter lights hanging. When he stopped, I noticed a camera flash out of the corner of my eye and someone hunched over, and I knew it had to be my sister, Hannah, as she knew that I always wanted photos of when I got engaged.

At that moment, I knew that this was the proposal! David continued to talk and tell me how excited He was to see God’s story for us unfold and how much he loves me. He then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I did not verbally say anything, but nodded, “YES” and then kissed him.

My whole body was trembling as I was so happy that I got to say, “Yes” to the man of dreams! After I calmed down, he put the ring on my finger, and I was so happy that we were officially engaged! I then looked to my left and both of our families were there and saw the whole proposal happen! It was a wonderful moment to not only share with my fiancé, but with our families too! God is Good!!!