our engagement.
'Our Story' February 15th, 2012
It was the coldest, earliest morning I had in a long time. My phone sang me awake with a new Bethel Loft Sessions lyrics, "Awaken my soul, come awake. To hunger, to seek, to thirst. Awaken first love, come awake" at 5am. I had to meet Erin (my internship supervisor & dear friend) at the D-house at Grace (part of our church) by 6am sharp so we could leave to start our journey to Cumming, Georgia. We were holding a 'mini' Jesus in the Qur'an (JIQ) for 'First Baptist of Cumming' because they wanted to help us out with Generation Salaam [lie #1]. Erin bought us Starbucks to shed light on such an early wake up call and I had naturally forgotten to put on deoderant that morning (not because mentally I thought I was supposed to be sleeping for four more house). Anyway, we stop at a local convenient store for me to run in & buy some 'Secret' (which seems to have forshadowed the entirety of my morning).
As Erin & I drive in the darkness of the morning (still) talking about school, past experiences in ministry, social work, and funny stories about not being morning people- she comes down with this awful, churning stomach ache from a combination of unhealthy food and coffee the day before [lie #2]. The one where you would go poop in the worst, disease catching convenient store bathroom just for the slightest bit of relief. She's high maintenance, so we stopped at a local Starbucks. I'm in the car dying at the morning story on The Bert Show where a father shoots his daughters laptop because she severely trash talked him & his wife on Facebook [truth #1]. Just a dad showing his rightful ownership & authority.
Erin comes out after ten minutes or so & tells me that we have to stop & get her some tums at Cummings local Ingles up the street [lie#3]. Before I got out of the car, Erin calls 'John' of 'First Baptist of Cumming' to tell him that we are going to be running a little late. He asked her if she did not receive his email last night where they had to cancel? [lie #4]. She gets off the phone angry wanting to know if he thinks that she is someone who just checks her email ALL the time because she has an iphone? She apologizes to me because we got up so early and I console her saying that we just have to be flexible, this is what we learned in our majors, it's totally fine- we have our mornings free now! I run in to get her some tums when I see Benton from across the store! He told me the night before that he was helping take care of his friend Kent's sick mom, who lives in Cumming, while Kent was on his honeymoon [lie#5]. So while he stood there with dayquill and water, the only words I could conjure up in total shock were, "What are you doing here?!" He uttered the same sentence back to me! We hugged and I said, "Well good morning to me, the Lord surely loves me!" He invites me to ride back to Grace with him and let Erin just go home, but I told him no, she was sick and I was going to stay with her to make sure she would be okay. We both check-out and I tell him to come see Erin with me. Erin freaks out wondering why he is there!
I give Erin the tums and she takes two then proceeds to tell us that she thinks she might throw up so she is going to run into the Ingles restroom [lie #6]. She asks Benton if he can take me back to Grace so she could go straight home. I turn around to gather my purse, coffee, and box of tissues (mind you, I had been sick this whole week) for Benton & I to both see three people blowing up a hot air balloon in the parking lot. I freak out of course. My dream that had been an ongoing joke between Benton & I was to be proposed to on a hot air balloon. I jokingly asked if was propsing to me and he said no [lie #7]. Both of us wanted to get closer so we agreed to go over and ask what was going on.
On the way, I was laughing at how sickly we looked because Benton was carrying dayquill and water while I was carrying a whole box of tissues. As we wer walking across the field I noticed the one man out of the three was filming and told Benton it looked like he was filming us! I thought it was a little strange seeing as how we were strangers to this guy, but again…ignorant. We get closer and ask him what is going on? He told us they started getting ready and his clients cancelled on him, he was still going to go up anyway and wanted to know if we wanted to ride [lie #8]. I told him I might cry… Benton & I both freak out. Our mornings are free, this is my dream, so we agred, WHY NOT! We intoduce ourselves and take the video camera from him so he can finish preparing the balloon. He told us they were filming to get footage for their website [lie #9]. We get inside the balloon & start to take off. I text a picture to my mom because she knows my dream and send Erin a text saying, "Sooo. . that balloon they were blowing up outside, yeahh, we are getting a free ride, RIGHT NOW!" She responded saying, "Whattttt???? That's so crazy!! I had no idea they were even blowing one up, shows how sick I'm feeling. Have fun!!" [lie #10]. We get about 400ft in the air & my mind starts racing with thoughts that this balloon company is non existant, our guide Darrel is making up all these stories and that he is going to kill Benton & I, we are never coming back down to earth. I started asking Darrel questions to see how his stories line up. He was good, and thorough in ALL his details. Maybe twenty minutes in, Darrel pulls out the video camera, I recognize this is my dream, whether death was my outcome or not, I was going to simply enjoy the ride. Darrel asks us for introductions & tells us that he will send us a video just for fun.
We introduce ourselves and I mention the fact that we had not planned on doing this today, we were supposed to be at meetings and taking care of sick moms when Benton kneels down and says,”I bet you weren't planning on this either. Maeg, will you marry me?”
I think the first thing out of my mouth was, "Are you serious?" I thought it was a joke considering our talks & how I never thought it was realistic to be proposed to on a hot air balloon. I say yes, duh, and we kiss then hug. Darrel continues to film for five more minutes at least telling us some other story that I am clueless on now for obvious reasons. We ride for the total of an hour with Darrel knowing my whole life story of how I wanted to be proposed to all the way down to me forgetting to put on deoderant that morning. We land in a park a few miles away from the Ingles, when I see my mom, dad, benton's parents, Erin & Brian all get out of the ballon company's van that was trailing us from the ground. They run towards us & I embrace mom first. Tears start streaming form both of our eyes, then dad next, then the Cranfords, then Brian & Erin who were taking pictures and filming. We get out of the balloon basket, take pictures, and laugh about how naive and gullible I was the whole time (later finding out that Brian & Erin woke up early and prayed that I would be confused the whole day- James 5:16- The prayers of a righeous man are powerful & effective). I was clueless even up to the point of Benton being on one knee.
I find out how every part of the process was a lie: There was not JIQ training, there was no First Baptist of Cumming, Benton was John on the phone, Erin was NEVER sick, Benton was not taking care of his friends sick mom (he was sitting in the car in the parking lot with Brian & both of our parents waiting for us to arrive to get the tums), there were no cancelled balloon clients, the video camera was Bentons, and the whole time he WAS planning on proposing. We laughed, took more pictures, and all went to Mimi's Cafe by Perimeter Mall around 10am to Celebrate. Not only does all this prove to show that I cannot trust my family, friends, and SOON TO BE HUSBAND, but that he is a great listener like Jesus, a romantic lover like Jacob to Rachel, a sacrificial man like Abraham, a man after God's own heart with favor like David, a leader like Moses, a man who seeks the Lord's direction & is not afraid to fight for what is right like Joshua, and a man that is young but burning with passion and love like Timothy.
