Click here to see pictures from our wonderful day. There are 22 pictures.

Let me preface this story with the fact that Josiah and I have been dating for a year. ups and downs and all arounds have filled our lives with a deeper love for each other in light of getting to know each other more and seeing each other grow in life, love and most exciting, God. The man you are reading about is the one I love and when I think of him I smile every time and thank God for such a blessing.

Okay, so December 26, 2005 Josiah asked me out on our first date; a drive up the mountain that overlooks the city of Townsville. There, he honorably asked me to begin a relationship with him. My smile from ear to ear has not yet ceased a year later!

December 26, 2006 for me began at 4:45am. I woke up, brushed my teeth and grabbed a jacket as I was escorted out the door into our vehicle. Good road tunes were playing as Josiah handed me a to-go cup of coffee and we quietly rolled out of the sleepy neighborhood. After a half hour of steep kilometers, he parked the car as we peered out over Townsville from Mount Stuart, glancing at each other with smiles setting onto our face. Grabbing the mini cooler, a blanket and my hand he led me to the same spot we sat a year ago, where we discussed our affections towards one another and what it would mean to begin a relationship; a relationship that is not meant to fill void time and entertain yourself but serve the other with the common goal of a pure lifestyle for God and each other towards marriage. We sat down in the mist and gazed at our sleepy city warm in a blanket with coffee in hand, waiting for the sun to peek through the clouds and wake everyone up. Josiah had already prepared a beautiful fruit salad for breakfast and being early in the morning, we made small talk.

The morning was wonderful; remembering the year was a sense of accomplishment in a way and our smiles were eating at our ears as we continued to reflect on our relationship and dating process. Around 7:30am we chucked the empty cooler and coffee mugs back into the car and descended down into the day as Josiah ventured north to a small beach we had never been to. Getting to know someone is an adventure, and we love to have adventures together! Bushland Beach was our next stop and we got out into the morning sun for a walk on the sand.

The tide was out unusually far and so we sauntered out towards the ocean for quite a while on the sandbars. My favorite part is the conversation; asking one another what our favorite memory was from our relationship in the past year, which quickly became memories instead of memory with laughs and giggles and a tug on each
others fingers.
Once the sand flies started munching on our ankles we headed back to the car for his next planned stop.

I love surprises.

Tropical Queensland is efficient in supple gardens of flowers, plants, ponds and fountains. Josiah had found one we hadn’t been to in the heart of the city…so we stopped and meandered some more through God’s breath of life and beautiful flowers around 9:00am. I can always talk, so I continued to chat up a storm throughout the morning. We ended up finding a gazebo like the one in the Sound of Music and since I’m such a great singer I began to reenact the scene with the postal boy and Liesel as she pranced around the benches of the gazebo. Let’s just say I didn’t hit the notes as well and most definitely wasn’t as graceful. The sun began to get hot and we hadn’t slathered on sunscreen yet so we hopped in the tinted car with air conditioning and he journeyed to our next stop.

I love the Riverway. The Riverway is one of my favorite places to go on an open afternoon…it’s a beautiful new facility provided free for the public and it is one of my favorite escapes filled with perfect lounging areas and cool pools during the summer. Check it out: The Riverway! You’ll be surprised; it’s beautiful! I was excited to see him turn into the Riverway carpark…we found a spot to spread our blanket out beneath a huge tree and after slopping on lots of sunscreen we closed our eyes in the shade. The breeze made it easy for us to nap and we woke up around 11:00am and went and slipped into the refreshing water. Talk about a wake up call!

Around noon our growling tummies led us back to the car where Josiah drove home to make my favorite lunch; sandwiches with lots of lettuce. (He loves me because I’m unique!) Satisfied with a full stomach I went back to my place to shower and freshen up for a 2:00pm date with lots of air con. (During the summer here, all you really want to do is either relax in cool water or in air conditioning) So when we parked in front of the movie theater on the opening day of Happy Feet I was all smiles. Josiah and I usually go see the latest animated movie because I love watching them (Cars is currently our favorite!), so Happy Feet was a nice, relaxing treat. We figured two thumbs up for the Australian animated movie is sufficient…

Our watches read 4:00pm as we walked back into the heat wave to get in our car. Josiah dropped me off back at my place and told me to be ready at six o’clock, dressed up and ready to go. Now this man knows what I like to do, because I love dressing up! Between four and six there started to become a small agony in my mind…I started reflecting on our conversations throughout the day, how special he was making things and started noticing small comments people were making, wondering what I was doing that night. So one question began to revolve in my head: Is tonight the night that he will propose??…..Nah, there’s no way, I told myself. I didn’t want to build up this false expectation of a getting a ring that evening, yet I quickly started to hope very hard for it.

So when we were eating our beautiful, candlelit dinner around 6:30pm, my stomach had so many butterflies floating around in there I was almost positive the zoo was going to come and take some back. I could barely eat, nervous and excited at the same time, hoping for Josiah to bend on one knee and say “I love you.” Yet I ate something so I didn’t make things look too obvious (although he still noticed I left a full plate). Awkward moments started to fill the night with little conversation, deep sighs and a very confused girl. Josiah reflected on the day and I tried to pay attention but I don’t remember what I was thinking…Once the dishes were done and my thoughts in my head were all big question marks, we called it a night. Josiah tried taking a few photos of us dressed up, but for some reason I couldn’t smile very big.

I got home and went straight to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth and looked in the mirror with a scowl. I was disappointed that Josiah hadn’t proposed, but more frustrated with myself that I allowed my thoughts and emotions to escalate to a false expectancy of him and that I was allowing that to steal the wonderful day we had just had. After a few tears and lots of talking with God I told myself it’s the process that matters and waiting will provide a beautiful gift in itself; it’s God’s timing and not mine that will bestow blessing upon the both of us. It didn’t make my disappointed heart go away, but knowing God’s truth and his faithfulness helped me fall asleep around 10:00pm.

“So where does the ring come in?” you’re probably wondering…

I thought the day had ended. We started at 4:30am and kept going. It was a full day. I was tired. I went to sleep. Plain and simple. But a knock on my bedroom door woke me up at 11:07pm and I jumped out of bed startled, bolting for the door to see what was going on. I blindly reached for the doorknob in the dark and grabbing hold, yanked open my door to a glow in the living room. I stood in my doorway with my pajamas on, retainers in and bed-head, blinking rapidly trying to wake up. Candles eluded a luminous glow upon Josiah, who was on one knee in front of my door with a little black box in his hand. My jaw locked as my chin dropped to my knees.

“I love you, Crissa. Will you marry me?” he said boldly. I was frozen in my spot; it felt like a dream you never want to wake up from. Had I heard him right?! Those three words had not been spoken between us before, for we didn’t want them to lose meaning or prematurely assume we knew what it was to love someone until the day we would commit to marriage. When I heard Josiah say “I love you,” my heart exploded with excitement and emotions.

I had forgotten to move, so Josiah urged “Will you come here? Just come here for a second,” as he motioned for me to come closer to him while he was still on one knee holding this bright, beautiful diamond ring! I don’t even remember what I said. “Yes, I’ll marry you” was somewhere in there as he slid the ring onto my finger for a perfect fit. It glimmered with the candlelight and I was beaming. I couldn’t stop repeating “Oh my gosh!” as I held my hand in front of me looking at this immense step of commitment. Josiah stood and wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tight. “I am engaged,” I thought. “And I’m still awake.”

It was perfect. We are perfect. Together.