A Photo Memory

I remember this night well, July 9th, 2007-the night Joseph and I got engaged! This picture was taken at Tello's, a very fancy and expensive italian restaurant on Lake Michigan. Let me take you back with me to how the evening had started. We had just spent the day out with Joseph's mom and had gotten back to the house when Joseph told me to get dressed up for the evening-he would be taking everyone out to dinner. I didn't have a lot of time; but quickly dressed and looked for Joseph; but he was nowhere to be found. His parents informed me that he had to make an errand and would meet us at the restaurant. This all seemed fine, maybe a little odd; but I didn't question it...well, I did question silently the fact that I was the only one dressed up. I planned on asking them what errand Joseph had to make as we drove to Haven, Michigan; but I couldn't get a word in edge wise since his parents had suddenly became very chatty. Once we arrived to Haven, we sat in a gazebo to await Joseph's arrival. Once he came, he made no mention of the errand he had to make. We split away from his parents, they took one side of the street and we took the other side to browse the tourist shops-it was a great time, especially since Joseph was willing to buy me a couple pieces of fudge and caramel! Apparently, he already knew his way to my heart! After we browsed the shops, we decided it was time for dinner and we went to Tello's which was quite an experience in of itself! The menus were written in italian, without prices and neither one of us can read italian! We ended up ordering plain old spaghetti...we knew that had to be somewhere on the menu! The waiter offered us wine and looked at us like we didn't belong when we informed him that we don't drink...we ended up ordering sodas and he brought them to us in wine glasses with straws that he had snipped in half. During the middle of the very expensive meal, Joseph's phone rang and he informed me that it was a preacher that he had needed to talk to about a meeting, so he excused himself. As Joseph made his way back into the restaurant and to the table after the phone call-which later I learned was his alarm clock-he promptly went on one knee. Now I must admit, deep down I had a feeling that this would be the night he would propose; but suddenly it was a reality and my heart went crazy. From his back Joseph pulled out a single red rose and gave it to me as he said something along the lines of, "Kendra Marie, you know I love you right? You know I want to take care of you for the rest of my life right? I want to be with you forever and always, will you marry me?" To which I just stared at him and did a little nod of the head, I didn't know how to speak suddenly. Joseph was like, "is that a yes?"! It sure was a yes...we left the restaurant and watched the sun set on Lake Michigan. It was a very simple and sweet evening, when I went home that night in the guest room a dozen white roses awaited my arrival. As I lay in the bed that night, I just replayed the night over and over again and again in my head....I had waited my whole life for a night like that and you always imagine how you want it to be or how you think it should be; but when it becomes your night and the way your husband to be does the proposal it suddenly becomes the way it always was supposed to be...better than you could have ever imagined.