Our story begins in the fall of 2003 when I returned to my on-and-off home church, SFC. When I came to the high school youth group I was graciously welcomed by my classmates and adopted into an eclectic group of friends. These individuals, from all different schools, quickly became my church family. We spent virtually every available moment together watching sports games, going to school dances, hanging out on weekends, planning church activities, etc. These are my first memories of Andrew; and while this group was the type where romantic feelings tended to roam free, he and I were great un-romantic friends.

The big-group shenanigans blissfully continued for 2 years. Eventually life circumstances began to change and as we all approached Senior year (05-06) the large group had turned into several smaller groups. Despite the split Andrew and I remained close, and eventually the lines between friendship and flirting became blurred.

After a few months of conversation and cautious dating, God opened doors and brought us together. The next 11 months were a blast; we were seniors and basking in the freedom of our last year at home. It was a year of fun and romance full of memories I will always treasure. We are so blessed to have been young and in love!

This past Sunday Andrew and I had a typical morning at church, followed by an afternoon lunch with a handful of our Jr. High students. After lunch we hurried to a matinee movie (The Time Traveler's Wife, which greatly disappointed me after reading and loving the book). We had plans that evening to have dinner with my dad and grandparents, so after the movie we headed home to figure out our plans.

Home, for me this summer, was a lovely house in Los Gatos which was central to downtown and faced Bachman Park. Consequently, my host family happened to be out of town for the weekend and things were extremely quiet. Anyway, as Andrew brought me home from the movie we decided that he would head home to get some chores done and come back to pick me up for dinner. As he left, I realized that I had a little time to do some chores myself, and casually called my mom to chat while I got stuff done. We were having a very ironic conversation (about engagements and weddings) when I heard the doorbell ring. I glanced at the clock and it was about 20 minutes before Andrew was supposed to return. Curious, but clueless, I got off the phone to go answer the door. (This is where it starts to get good...)

As the door swung open I found a bouquet of red roses lying on the porch with a note which read: "Malia, Come across the street to the park. I have a surprise for you. Love, Andrew" I picked up the flowers and ran across the street looking for any sign of Andrew. After a few moments I spotted him smiling at me on a bench about 100 yards away in the shade, surrounded by vibrantly multi-colored rose petals. As I started to walk toward him I was bombarded by my dog Bella, who I had failed to notice running toward me. As soon as she reached me I became preoccupied with her energy and bent down to greet her. This is when I noticed a little flash of something on her collar!

I was feeling a little suspicious by now as Andrew walked over to us. I straightened up to meet him and gestured to Bella's collar saying, "what's that?" He looked into my eyes and said, "that's your grandmother's engagement ring and wedding band". Hearing this I started to feel choked up, beginning to piece together just how much work he had put into this. He bent down to remove it from the collar and quickly had it in his hand. He said, "let's try it on". I started to feel nervous because I had remembered it being too small in the past, and sure enough, when he tried it on my finger it didn't fit at all. Somehow, I was still in shock. I was thinking, "how could it not fit? What do we do now?"

Without missing a beat Andrew said, "oh, it's a little too small... Well, that's ok, it's not your ring." Instantly he was on one knee with a ring box in his hand that contained another ring! This ring was so beautiful I was completely blown away. As I looked at it for the first time it became the most special material object I had ever seen. He asked me to marry him and after I accepted (of course!) we walked hand in hand over to our bench, sat down, and basked in the moment.

It was so simple and perfect. Andrew's anxious excitement was incredibly charming and endearing; the whole thing was dripping with love. Very shortly afterward we did end up going to dinner and it feels as though we haven't stopped celebrating ever since.