.engagement.
Oleah is the best storyteller in the world, but since I manage this web space, my storytelling will have to do.
Oleah was living with her cousin Ryan in Gainesville. Ryan had told her not to plan anything for Friday since he had something special planned for her. Oleah had a stressful week with classes, and this particular Friday (2/8/02) she had several tests to take. I called Oleah before classes just to wish her success for her day and to let her know that I would be praying for her. In between her classes, I brought her one single-stemmed pink rose to cheer her up.
After her classes, Oleah jumped in the car with Ryan. Oleah initially thought she might be going to a play, but as they were driving out of town towards Jacksonville, she reconsidered. She then thought they might be going to the Jax zoo, but instead they ended up at the Jax airport. She was trying to think who they might know that may be coming into town, but couldn’t think of anyone.
While at the airport, Oleah’s high school friend Dimple walked up out of nowhere. Minutes later, I showed up with three pink roses. This was particularly a surprise, since I at the time was teaching a chemistry class on Friday afternoons. As we were walking around, I took Oleah’s ID to check her into a flight. Surprised and confused, she willingly went along with the plan as they flew to Atlanta. I indicated that we were going to see family, so Oleah assumed that they were going to see my family in Atlanta.
Once we arrived at the Atlanta airport, we met my brother Myles who started talking about catching the next flight. Oleah, now even more confused, willingly got on another plane with me to Baltimore.
Just after the plane had taken off, a flight attendant came by our seats. She brought with her one white rose and a cordial greeting, “This is to Oleah from Mark.” Three more times periodically through the flight (about every 45 minutes), a different flight attendant would come and greet us with another white rose and a similar greeting. By the end of the flight, the flowers were piling up by Oleah’s seat.
During the flight, Oleah opened up a Martha Stewart Living magazine that she bought at the Atlanta airport. One of the advertisements was a full page ad with a box of chocolates and the words written at the bottom, “Remember, my name is Mark.”
Once we had arrived in Baltimore, Oleah was holding eight roses and wives suggestively nudged their husbands as they saw her with all these flowers. We then saw my Uncle Jun standing with four red roses, totaling a dozen roses (4 pink, 4 white, and now 4 red). After talking with my Uncle Jun, Oleah then realized that we were very close to Washington D.C.!
Once we arrived at my uncle’s place, Oleah went to bed in the kids’ room while Mark ensured he had everything prepared for the next day. In the morning, my uncle and aunt dropped us off at the National Mall.
After exploring the Lincoln Memorial, we walked near the reflection pond near the Vietnam Memorial. Oleah was ready to walk all over town, but I was taking a more leisurely pace. I bent a knee, showed her the ring and said, “Oleah, I want to serve God with you the rest of my life. I want to know if you’ll be my wife.”
(picture taken the next day)
I waited for what must have been the longest 20 seconds of my life. I was about to stand up and tell her that she didn’t have to answer immediately and that I understood if she would need more time to think about it. After all, Oleah and I were not even dating! Oleah looked down at the beautiful ring and thought, ”I want that!” But she closed her eyes and prayed. She received what she describes as a clear answer from God, and responded calmly, “Yes, I will marry you.”
Relieved and ecstatic, we hugged and told some people from Florida that were walking around. We then spent the rest of the day giddy exploring Washington DC.
The next several days were filled with telling all of our friends about the engagement, and six short months later we were married!
View more pictures from the surprise weekend here.