Tonight my friend Mao brought a cake over to celebrate my engagement with Jason. That's right... I'm getting married!!! For the complete story, keep reading!
Mao, me, my roommate Maki, & my shiny ring!
Pumpkin & cream tart from the cake shop Mao works at. Delicious!!!
Lighthouse roommates & Mao enjoying celebrating, talking about wedding things, and catching up over cake & hot cocoa. So fun!! (New roommate Suzana from Slovakia, me, Mao, & roommate Maki)
Our Engagement Story: Sept. 5, 2009
As most of you know, I live in Japan, working with The Navigators here. Jason & I started dating in March, after he saw a picture of me, asked others about me, couldn't get me out of his mind, and mutual friends connected us. The first date of my life was with him in Kearney on March 13, 2009, while I was on a spring break trip with Japanese students. We continued dating long-distance via Skype, and needless to say, things couldn't have gone better! In July, Jason came to visit me in Japan for 3 weeks. We had a great time together! And in September, I went to the States to visit him over our summer vacation here in Japan. And so the engagement story begins...
I flew into Colorado Springs & spent a few days at The Navigators' headquarters. Jason drove out & met me in the Springs on Friday, Sept. 4th - what a glorious reunion! Saturday was our day to have fun and catch up before heading back to Nebraska together on Sunday. So Saturday we decided to go for a hike. We drove a bit North of the Springs, asked a guy at a gas station for directions to a good hike in the area, and headed to our trail: Crag's. After hiking for about an hour, we decided to stop and rest before heading back to the car. We found the perfect log, stretching across the wide, beautiful path, in the middle of the forest. I was loving the view from our little seat. Jason asked me how I was doing, and I told him I felt the best I had all week (jet lag + high altitude = not feeling so good). He said, "I was trying to think of fun and creative things to do together, like hiking, and I know when you get goofy you like to beat-box, but you never have anyone to rap with you. So, I wrote a rap so you'd have someone to beat-box with. But you have to beat-box in order to hear the rap." What! It was such a ridiculous idea! I beat-box when I'm goofy at karaoke in Japan with my little group of friends. But in the middle of the forest, just me and him?! He got out his journal with the rap written in it. I couldn't stop laughing, it was so ridiculous!! But I was curious what he'd written, because I know he doesn't really write poetry, let alone raps! So finally, I started beat-boxing, breaking up a few times because I couldn't stop laughing. It was a pretty funny scene! The rap was about me and him, how we met, how we've been saved by Jesus, the things about the Lord that we both treasure, the things he likes most about me, and when he started this last part, I realized what he was doing (of course I'm still beat-boxing, mind you...):
Here we go, he's gettin' some nerve
He aims to protect, comfort, love and serve
Now's the time to get on one knee
Amanda Dawn Balcom
Will you marry me?
"YES!!!!!!!!!" I knew what to say! And then he got down on one knee, pulled the ring out, and said, (for the first time), "Mandy, I love you. And I will love you forever if you'll be my wife. Will you marry me?" And with great excitement I said "YES!!!" one more time! And we hugged for a really long time. He had done a great job of distracting me with the rap, so I had no idea he was going to propose right then.
And after that super long hug, we started to walk back. 10 minutes later we saw a couple coming up on the trail, and I said to Jason, "I have to tell them!" And so as we got closer I said, "Hey, how's it going? We just got engaged!!!!" And they said congratulations, were super excited, asked to see the ring, and we introduced ourselves. They'd just recently gotten married and were pretty jazzed with us. They offered to take our picture, but we didn't have either of our cameras since all of our batteries were dead :( But, so kindly, they offered to take our picture with their camera and email us the photos. It was SO nice of them! Thus we have the pictures that we do of our engagement.
That's it! That's our story! We're pretty stoked, and we're planning to get married this May... we can't wait!! We are so thankful for the fun way that God brought us to each other & for the journey he's leading us on together!
I'm back in Japan, finishing out my term here with the BEST Club. I'll head home to Nebraska in December, seizing every possible opportunity here until I board the airplane. God has done so much in the two years that I've been here!
