I'm Gonna Be A Sinkovitz!

On December 14, 2012 Jake asked me to be his wife! For those who want to know the details of the story, read on!

December 14 is the day that 2 years ago Jake asked me to be his gal at one of our favorite places, the pond. Since it was our anniversary I knew we were going to do something special. Jake had told me he had a bunch of meetings that day so he wouldn't be able to get to SAU before 4:30. I was disappointed by that, but that day was also the day I was done with college forever. So I had a bit to keep me occupied :) However, our exciting day started long before that. Here is the timeline:

12:00 am December 14: Braydan randomly leaves our apartment and I get suspicious. After her return, I received a text message from Jake saying to look outside my door. I did and there was a whole bouquet of yellow roses with a note. Yellow roses are one of my favorite flowers and the kind he gave me last year at midnight on our one year anniversary. The note was wonderful and, had I not been crying with my friends about being moving away from them the next day, I would have cried happy tears. So I called Jake and got absolutely no information out of him and Braydan denied everything (come to find out that later that she let Jake into the building)

8:45 am: I wake up and am sitting in my living room and start to pray when I hear a rustling outside my door. A few moments later I receive the same text from the night before, "Look outside your door." There was McDonald's breakfast with another note. On February 14, 2011  I snuck McDonald's into Jake's K-house microwave while he was at Chapel Band practice at 6:30 in the morning. Jake talked about this memory in the note, among other nice things. So I enjoyed breakfast in my apartment :)

11:30 am: Matt Fry, a good friend of ours, calls me and says "Hey I have something you might want to see." I had already seen Matt twice that day so I was suspicious again haha. He walked up to me and handed me a peppermint hot chocolate and walked away. He wouldn't say anything to me! He ignored all of my shouts and continued to walk, so I read the note that was tucked into the cup sleeve. Before Jake and I were dating he worked at Sacred Grounds and he would always make me peppermint hot chocolate. Since that time, it has been one of our favorite things to do, go anywhere and get this glorious drink. It was a great surprise!

3:45 pm: Ben Kono, another good friend of ours, texted me asking where I was. He then came to my apartment and in the same fashion as Matt handed me a box of mini chewy sweet tarts (my favorite candy) with another note attached. In one of the previous notes Jake had written "Ps- don't try to figure out how I am doing this- I just know people." He knows my tendency to ask questions to try to ruin surprises for myself haha. I am a really difficult person to surprise that is for sure!

4:30 pm: Jake shows up looking so incredibly handsome! He had trimmed his beard and gotten a trendy haircut. I was floored! We get in the car and he makes up some story about how the dinner reservations got messed up and we have quite a bit of time but the place we are going is too far to come back to Jackson after. We always go to the pond, which is in Spring Arbor, on special occasions or when we just want to hang out. So he said we would have to go to the pond early. I was disappointed because we always go to look at the stars. So I made him drive around the block once, I was just being obnoxious because I knew he had a plan haha :) So I relented and put his nerves a little more at ease by saying we could go then.

As we approach the trail through the woods that leads to the pond I saw candle-lit lanterns along the whole path. I thought, "Oh boy, this is it!" At each lantern Jake stopped me, gave me a kiss, and talked about a memory he had of me/us. Each moment was so special and was something unique to us. At the end of the path, we arrived at the pond where there was a blanket (his Canada hockey one to be exact), with two lanterns on either side. There was a thermos of hot chocolate, a box of cookies, another bouquet of flowers (the best one I've ever gotten!), and his guitar on the blanket. We sat and enjoyed hot chocolate and the sight of the calm pond for awhile.

The bouquet of flowers from the pond.

Then Jake said, "Stand up, I want to play you a song." I knew what song this was. He wrote me a song when I was in Uganda during May of 2011. It was after this that he told me he loved me for the first time. So, every time he sings me this song I cry. Therefore, we were singing it together and I was crying, a lot! After the song was over, Jake put down his guitar and grabbed something out of his case. He hugged me close and was smiling really big. He pulled back and said, "These two years have been so crazy, but the best time of my life. I want to spend the rest of my life with you." He then got down on one knee and said, "Hannah, will you marry me?" All I could muster was a violent head nod between laughs and tears then whispered, "YEAH!" So he then showed me the amazing box that he MADE himself out of this beautiful dark wood. The ring was around a circle in the center of the box but he couldn't get it out! He started hitting the box against his hand and said "You have nails, you do it." S I pulled the ring out of the box. Then he said "Give me that!" Got back on his knee. "Give me your hand." He put the ring on and it fit perfectly. Then he shouted, "Okay Brandon you can come out now!" One of his best friends had been taking pictures the whole time!

I said yes :)

So after Brandon left I was just so excited! I went through the whole list of things we would get to do as a married couple (wash dishes, eat the same food, do laundry, etc.) Then he pulled out two more things to surprise me with: notebooks. He had written a notebook which he titled "My Journey to Engagement". From the day he bought the ring, a year and a half ago!, he journaled about different conversations we had, different things he was thinking or feeling, and at the end how ready he was to ask me to be his wife. I read this notebook by candle-light next to the pond. Sheesh, how romantic! Then I read the notebook that we write back and forth in. After that we sat back and watched the stars for a bit. I saw a shooting star, but I knew I would, I always do when we are out there.

We both were freezing and so it was time to leave the pond. We had parked the car outside of our good friends' house, Fred and Teresa Janson, I said we should see if they are home. Making me think it was my idea, Jake enthusiastically agreed and just walked right in! I was confused and questioning him "Wait are they home, are we allowed to just walk in?" He just smiled, and we walked around the corner to both of our families! It was awesome. I cried of course and we got to spend a bit of time telling them the story and enjoying each other's company.

Before dinner Jake said he had one more surprise. So we stopped at Scott Osborne's house and when we walked in, so many people were there to celebrate! I cried again, big surprise haha. My best friends, all who could be there, were there to share in our joy. It was amazing. After that great stop, we went off to Doug and Sharon McCarrell's to enjoy a nice dinner just the two of us. We always go here on our special dates, they are so kind to open their home to us!

So the only thing left to explain is the ring. It doesn't look like most rings the gals are getting these days and I love that. A year and a half ago I saw a ring in an antique shop in Manistee, MI. I didn't want to show Jake because we had only been dating 8 months or so. But later I told him about it. Unbeknownst to me, several weeks later he went back to scour the shop for it! He ended up getting it and holding onto it in good faith for a year and a half, knowing that we would eventually take this step. So the ring is very very special to me and I love that it isn't typical.

 So that was probably longer than you bargained for, but it was the most special night of my life! As you can see, community is so important to us. There were so many people involved in making this night happen, but even more so helping us get to the point we are at. I am so thankful for all of the people God has blessed us with, I know that into our marriage community will continue to be a huge piece of our lives.

::By His Grace & For His Glory::