Eight Years of the Best Yes

Today is our 94th monthiversary! I remember when we finally hit double digits in the monthiversaries, and now we're not far from triple digits!

I'm excited for this day and for the 94 months we've had the privilege of sharing, but I'm also excited for another milestone we hit this weekend - Sunday, actually - and that is our eighth engagementversary!

Eight years ago I had brown hair (and a subpar flat iron, I might add) and no idea that I was about to get the biggest surprise of my 34 years: a marriage proposal.

I think most of you who read here have been around for a while and have heard this story, but there might be a few of you here who don't know it - and besides, it's one of my favorites stories, so I'm going to share some of my favorite parts of it today.

Ryan and I had talked about marriage, and I knew that he planned to propose. I even knew that it would probably happen within the next few months. We had looked at rings and talked about wedding dreams, but I had no idea that he already had a ring in his possession and a magnificent proposal plan already concocted.

I also did not know that almost every single one of my co-workers knew it was happening that day.

Ryan proposed to me when I worked at WBCL, and that particular day was BLT day. (BLT stood for Bekah, Lynne, Thursday and was a show that Lynne Ford and I shared every single Thursday from 10-11. That day was National Frappe Day, and part of our show's plan included Lynne trying her first ever frappe on the air. (She didn't like it and I could not come to grips with that.)

After we talked (excessively, apparently) about frappes, Lynne asked me to share my favorite memory in life. I looked at my show notes and shared about when my bonus nephew, James, had been born. I had been in the delivery room for his birth and had some specific sweet memories about that day.

When that story ended, I looked at Lynne, expecting her to share her own favorite life memory, as our show notes said she would do.

Instead, she said, "I think after today, you'll have a different favorite memory."

I scrambled to stare at my notes, trying to figure out where she was going. We were live, so I couldn't offer dead air, but I couldn't figure out where she was going! So I stammered around saying, Okaaay...." and then the door to the studio swung open.

People aren't supposed to come in the studio when the On Air light is on - and if they do, they're supposed to peek through the window first to let you know they're coming.

But no one had peeked in. I looked over at the door and saw Ryan coming in! What was he even doing there? Wasn't he at work 105 miles away? Why was he not in scrubs? He walked briskly through the room to my side of the board and I heard Lynne announcing to our listeners who had just walked in the room. I heard her say he had a question for me, and I knew.

I knew this was the very moment. And all I could think was that I surely hoped my mom had a heads-up about this because I knew she never missed a show.

I tried so hard to focus on Ryan's every single word, because I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime moment and I did NOT want to miss a thing!

He had memorized the proposal and delivered it flawlessly.

I said yes twice. I didn't realize he wasn't finished asking and jumped ahead to an answer. :)

It was the best yes. After saying yes to Jesus, saying yes to Ryan was the best decision I've ever made. I say yes every single day of my life, and if he ever decided to memorize another proposal and ask again, I'd say yes again. Twice!

I love you, Ryan! Happy 94 months, and happy EIGHTH engagementversary!