Sealed with a Kiss

It was a bright and sunny day (the very opposite of a dark and stormy night, so you know it's a good omen). Harold and I were about to go out for breakfast with his mom because it was her last day in town visiting us. I went into the other room to get my purse and by the time I came back, plans had changed. His mom said she wanted to go down to the beach before breakfast to take a few final pictures. We have an amazing pebble beach on our block... it's full of starfish, oysters, and mini-crabs. You have to take a staircase down a cliffside to get there. At the bottom of the stairs, you turn right for the beach or left to take a trail through a dense forest with ferns growing in the underbrush and waterfalls cascading over a giant cliff. As we approached this fork, his mom decided she wanted to run ahead on the wooded trail so she could take pictures of the waterfall at the end. She told us to just go ahead to the beach and she'd catch up with us in a bit. I thought it was a bit strange because we could have just popped by the other end of the trail on the way to the restaurant so she could take her pictures, but who am I to argue with a lawyer?

Harold and I continued down to the beach alone. The view from here is second to none: The ocean stretches out to the horizon where the mainland mountains suddenly rise up and kiss the sky. We walked a bit and then sat down on a fallen tree trunk. We had a brief conversation about how gorgeous it all is and what a crazy year it's been that brought us to this point. Then he told me he'd brought a friend with him. Out of his bag, he pulls this little seal puppet we had from the Vancouver Aquarium. I thought that was so cute. We really love seals and just the day before we had been out kayaking with seals in the Georgia Strait. I figured this was a more than appropriate reason for him to bring a stuffed seal to the beach. Then he told me the seal had brought something along. I laughed, figuring it was a smaller stuffed seal shoved inside the puppet-hole of the first. Imagine my surprise when a ring box popped out! At this point, he didn't really ask, "Will you marry me?" because I just started hugging and kissing him (yes, and crying a bit). We put the ring on my finger and he said, "So I guess this is a yes?" Of course it was!!!!!! Then we strolled along the beach, hand in hand, ankle-deep in the water. So happy.

A while later, his mom came back to the beach and was the first to congratulate us. Being away from our families this year has been hard so I'm very glad we were able to have a family member in town to help us celebrate. The ring, a beautiful white gold with 2 diamonds and 10 sapphires, had actually been her ring. That makes it all the more special. Sneaky Harold actually managed to steal my grad ring to get my engagement ring sized (I wear my grad ring on the ring finger of my other hand) while his mom and I were shoe shopping. What a filthy trick.... distracting me with shoes!

So the plans: they are very unofficial as of yet since we are in the middle of moving to Hong Kong (hence the purpose of this blog). We were originally planning to get married somewhere in Asia next summer (2011). Now we are realizing how expensive and difficult it will be for people to actually come. The very tentative plans are either to get married in Hawaii, as a half-way point between Hong Kong and Ontario, or to have a Caribbean wedding. It will still be next summer. Then we will have a reception in Windsor, possibly sometime over Chinese New Year (2012).

I'm so happy and lucky to have such a wonderful man with whom I can share my life. I love his sense of humour, adventurous spirit, sensitive and sweet side, and, of course, his dashing good looks. I will love and cherish him forever.