We're Engaged!

Hello friends of Nils.  I'm Jen.  You may have heard a bit about me on Nils' blog, but today, you actually get to hear from me.  You see, I was so excited about Nils' proposal yesterday that I wanted to sing his praises to you all, since you know and love him too.  And I knew that if I let him write about it, he just wouldn't brag about it sufficiently because one of the reasons we love him is that he is humble.  But he is also awesome and his praises SHOULD be sung!  So I am commandeering his blog for the day to tell you the story.  Here goes:

One day in late 2008, Nils asked me, "Do you think time is linear or cyclical?"  I answered that I thought it was both.  Similar events and themes recur over time, like seasons, but there is also a progression to it all, a coming to fruition in the midst of repetition.  Without knowing it, I ended up setting describing the theme of the proposal that Nils would make several months later.  In his exquisite attention to detail and symbol, Nils chose to create a full-day long proposal in which he would take me on a tour of events and places that had been significant to the two of us during our dating relationship.  But each return would have something added to it that took it to the next level.

Nils began by making me breakfast, which he has done many times before since he loves making unique breakfasts, while I have more of a talent for eating them, if you know what I mean.  THIS time Nils made a traditional Thingvall family favorite: melt-in-your-mouth French Puff biscuit/muffins covered in buttery cinnamon sugar.  Following breakfast, he gave me the most excellent gift of several hours of down time together, catering to my love language.

When I had returned from a two-week trip to Ireland in 2008, Nils had greeted me with a lovely picnic in the park, filled with a variety of cheeses, breads, and wine.  So for lunch, he surprised me with a picnic yet again.  But THIS time, it was a tropical picnic with cranberry goat cheese, smoked mozzarella, goat brie, pepper brie, fruit, and chai in the Denver botanical gardens.  The sound of a babbling brook in the shadow of giant, unfathomably unique plants and flowers from the rainforest gave us a much-needed tropical break from the gray Colorado winter.

After a refreshing nap, Nils told me that it was time to dress up and he drove us past the Denver Valentine's Day lights back to the west end of 16th Street, where we had met for our first date.  He guided me through the park near the Platte River to Zengo's, as he had done the year before.  But THIS time, Zengo's was not the end.  It was only a stop for mojitos, shrimp, and sushi featuring Kobe beef lightly heated with a blow torch, combined with out-of-this-world sauces, rice, asparagus, and all kinds of other flavors.

Mildly satiated, we returned to Nils' place to exchange Valentine's Day gifts strongly featuring Wen's and Rocky Mountain chocolates.  Then, we headed off to a fancy dinner.  Now, in our time together, we have frequented quite a few excellent restaurants, but THIS one brought them all to fruition. Literally. We went to Fruition, one of the top 10 new restaurants in the country, where we had a 5 course meal complete with a wine paring for each course.  Rabbit pot pie, mushroom and fresh herb gnocchi, bass and lobster in a creamy sauce, the most tender duck ever, and chocolate strawberry mousse in a seared sugar bowl were among the featured culinary delights.  

Now, an ordinary guy might have proposed right then and there.  Or at the gardens.  Or at appetizers.  I mean, what woman in her right mind wouldn't already be screaming "Yes" by now?  But Nils knew that I am the type who prefers to do my deepest emotions out of the public eye. So he drove us up Highway 285 to Falcon Park, where I had surprised Nils for his 30th birthday by doing a revision of prom with a twinkle-light dance floor under the stars (Nils' original prom left something to be desired...).  So Nils brought me back to this special place and, under the stars and brilliant half-moon of the cold, clear night, he used his Google phone to play a set of love songs and to provide a little light with which I could...read a book!  What?  A book, you say?  The mind reels that there could be more, but there is!

One of Nils' many talents is making books from scratch—cutting the pages, setting the type, sewing the cover and all!  Nils had made a book for me before, one that I wanted but was out of print. (Isn't he SO sweet?!?!?!)  But THIS time, the book he made was a conversation with God thanking God for me and asking for His blessing on our relationship and His help in keeping our love strong and growing.  He had me read the book aloud through my tears (of COURSE I was sobbing from overwhelming delight by now) and the book ended with a proposal.  The ring was hidden within the book in a little box made from cut-out pages.  

And, weeping from happiness greater than I had ever dreamed was possible, and silently praying the Ephesians 3:18 prayer that God would expand my capacity to be able to take in His wide, long, high, and deep love for her, poured out so abundantly through Nils' beautiful acts and words, said, "Yes!"    

Editor's Note:  Actually, Jen said, "Hell yes!" because "Yes" just didn't seem strong enough by that point, "Heck yes" sounds silly when you are in passionate moments such as these, and besides, there was no polite company around to offend.