How Missy and John Saunders Got Engaged

When I think back to the timing of how we got together I can honestly say there must have been a little bit of divine intervention that we met and got married. John left for his mission later than he normally would have because his mom had been diagnosed with cancer and he wanted to be there for his family as much as he could to know if her situation would stabilize. It was a prayerful decision on his part and ended up leaving in April instead of late December or January. If he had gotten home then I would still have had that old long distance boyfriend and probably wouldn't have even given him a second thought once he came home. I'm actually happy now that he broke up with me when he did, because I may have never even gotten the chance to meet John.

John and I had a pretty normal courtship, if you can call any courtship normal. John was fun to hang out with, cute, and loved everything about me. We really did spend every day together, even it if was just him stopping off to say Hi to me on his way home from work. John was really thoughtful and would leave me notes on my door and flowers ever so often. We went to Institute together, went to concerts and plays, he ate at my mom's on Sundays and came to family gatherings. We had our moments when we'd argue every now and then or get annoyed but you really could tell we were a good fit. John was a great boyfriend.

I was talking with my friend Nikki about things one night after we'd been hanging out for a week or two. I mentioned to her that we hadn't kissed yet. It took a little over a week for him to even hold my hand! We had gone to see a movie one night and it was one of those situations where both of us wanted to hold each other's hand but neither of us were brave enough to do it. But on the way home he was walking me to my apartment and about halfway to the door he grabbed my hand and we walked the rest of the way and didn't even have to say a word. For some reason I just didn't think about the fact that he was a recent return missionary and hadn't really had contact from a girl, let alone hold her hand. It was so endearing, but I still wanted him to kiss me, dang it!

One Saturday, which happened to be the Saturday he was leaving for Utah, we went to the Forest Hill city employee picnic because I do the t-shirts every year and usually go help when I can. John was more than willing to help and my mom was more than impressed. We were tired and worn out and afterwards we went back to my apartment for a minute to say goodbye since he had to leave right away. We stood on the porch and talked for a few minutes. Then we actually started talking about kissing each other. So much for spontaneous. So John (who is a bit taller than me, especially when I have on sandals) leaned down to kiss me and we missed and I kissed his chin instead. It was so embarrassing. We laughed about it for a minute, then he kissed me for real and just left. I texted him later telling him he was mean for kissing me then leaving me for 4 days!

We texted a lot when we were dating, and actually still do text a lot. About a month into us dating I started getting those feelings like I might be falling in love with him but he had never eluded to anything like that and I really didn't want to be the first one to say anything. Then one night for some reason we were texting back and forth and I typed out the words "would you consider the feelings you have for me to be love?" or something completely lame like that. Immediately after writing it I wished I could have taken it back. Fortunately he responded "yes." And that was it. From then on we always told each other I love you. For some reason it just seemed natural.

Did we ever talk about getting married? Yes and No. John says Yes, I say No. But I was so wrapped up in just wanting to get to know each other and not wanting to worry about what would happen in the future that I honestly didn't put much thought to it. I mean, you think about marrying someone but you never really think it will happen.

Okay, I'm a total liar. We were taking classes at the same time at TCC that summer and I will admit that I wrote Missy Saunders all over my notes for all of my classes. Doesn't ever girl do that? So I guess I thought about it a lot but never REALLY thought about it. I mean, I never even got to the point of thinking of praying about it. Later in the summer John would ask me if I felt like we were done dating or if we could spend the rest of our life with each other. And I'd say yes and think it was so cute. But when my sister Mandie would ask me if I thought we would get married I'd say things like "No, we're not all that serious." or "I think we're going to take our time and get to know each other." Boy would I be eating my words because John definitely had other plans.

John really liked Mandie and my friend Nikki and he gets along great with them in general so we'd do things together a lot. John didn't mind being the only guy, I think he actually enjoyed it. I mean, we were all cute so who wouldn't? We had gone to Dallas one Friday night so we could eat at PF Changs because, well, it's greatness. We walked around the mall for a while first, trying on clothes at JCrew and having a great time. After dinner we got our fortune cookies and mine said "You will soon get something because of your charm." I looked at John and thought there might be more flowers in my future.

The next night we had a bunch of people over to my mom's house to watch a movie since she had recently gotten a huge projection TV. We watched Moulin Rouge even though I really wasn't interested in watching that. I guess I just never knew how great it was! I was playing hostess bringing people drinks and brownies and ice cream and John was a little sad that I wasn't just sitting back watching the movie with him. I thought he was so mad at me and I couldn't figure out why. Afterwards everyone left and we stayed and talked for a while and he assured me that he wasn't mad. So we stayed there a while then because it was getting so late (nearly midnight), headed back to my apartment. We sat outside on the porch because it was such a beautiful night. It had rained earlier in the day and the air was crisp and clean. We had been making out talking then decided it was late and John should go. I mean, it was way too late for us to be out. So we said goodbye and John walked down the stairs. I went inside and shut the door, locked both latches, turned off the lights then headed to my room.

There was a loud knock on the door. I was immediately startled and froze right where I was standing. I turned around and walked slowly to the door and peered through the peep hole. I breathed a sigh of relief because it was John. I opened the door and asked what he was doing there. He looked distressed and was almost shaking a little. So I hugged him and asked him what was wrong. He said nothing was wrong he just needed to come talk to me again. As I stood there he had reached into his pocket and had a white box in his hand. I looked down and gasped. "What is that?" I honestly don't remember what he said until he got to the words "Will you marry me?" I was completely stunned. I wasn't expecting this at all! What was I supposed to say? I had never thought about getting married. I'd never prayed about marrying him and I had no idea what to say. So I hugged him again and said "I think so."

Okay, so that's the wrong thing to say when someone asks you to marry them because John nearly fell down the stairs. I tried to say that I hadn't ever thought about it and didn't know what to say. He opened the little white box and inside was the most perfect ring. White gold with a wide band and a square cut diamond. It was perfect. I hugged John again and said "Yes." We stood there for a while trying to take in what we had just done and finally John told me to pray about it so that I would feel good about it. And I did.

The next morning I was so nervous about telling Nikki so I knocked on her door before we were supposed to leave for church. I was already half in tears and I held my hand up in a 5 with the ring facing her and she was so confused as to why I was flashing a tearful 5 in her face until she saw the ring! She hugged me and was so excited. The ring was actually a little small for my hand (turns out it was about a 4 1/2 and I wear a 5-5 1/2) so I couldn't take it off all that day for people to see. But I was actually kind of glad because everyone wasn't manhandling it all day long. My mom gave John such a hard time for not asking her if he could marry me since John obviously couldn't ask my dad. But he's been a great son-in-law so I think she has forgiven him by now! Most of my family ended up going to my mom's that afternoon to wish us their congratulations. It was a really great day.

Not only was John a great boyfriend, he was a great fiance and he is a great husband and a great dad. I'm really grateful for the timing of our lives that put us in the right place at the right time to meet. As unsure as the future is for anyone I am happy to experience it all with John and our little family.

Now if he'll ever let me live down that "I think so" thing...