Proposal: Part 8 of 8 - Finally - The DAY!

Posted May 05, 2008 by Herbie — Comments (10) — Filed under: Personal

Well the day finally came.  Still lingering were the thoughts from the night before I came to a conclusion.  I tried to figure out a way to look at last nights conversation in a positive way.  Then it hit me.  The Lord in his gentle way told me, “You prayed for this.”  I realized He was right.  As far back as I can remember praying for my future wife I remember praying for someone who was smart, liked me for who I am, didn’t take things for face value, could figure things out for her self,  honest, straight to the point, and the list goes on.  But the Lord let me know in that moment that He cared enough to answer those prayers in Lisa.  So, I looked at the day ahead of me in I completely different light.  Know matter if she “knew” or not - it was a good day for a proposal.

I got to work and was still very nervous.  However, Ira Beasterfield, Del Kroeker, and Mike Harrenstien did a lot of work that day to help my nerves.  They took full control of communicating to the staff how and when to meet and making sure all the letters were going to happen.  They also had put out ropes on the hill for the staff to line up on.

That morning a lady came to camp with absentee ballots for the staff because that next week we would be at Staff Retreat.  Lisa had come down to the Ministry Center to fill one out and also to talk to me.  I remember her looking me straight in the eyes saying, “About last night…”  She began to tell me that she “felt” like I was going to propose to her on our date.  She wasn’t expecting it.  She then began to explain that I wasn’t acting “normal” up to that point and the questions I was asking her the day before were unusual - Like what kind of clothes did she want pictures taken in - that just isn’t a normal question I would ask her.  I covered by saying, “The only reason I asked about clothes is because we only have two pictures of us while dating.  I asked Jesse if he could take some pictures of us.” (I know… another half truth )  So the surprise was still intact.  All I had to do was somehow act “normal” through out the rest of that day.

I saw Lisa several times through out the day - in her words, I WAS acting “normal.” She even invited me to have lunch at her place (I cooked it while she took Bauer for a walk).  A little known fact is that when I’m nervous - I can’t eat) We sat together for lunch and “ate”.  As hard as I could I ate every bite.

We got back to camp and went to our separate duties at camp and said, “see you at 4:00!”  The staff in the ministry center can testify that now I REALLY was a nervous wreck.  I couldn’t concentrate on anything.  About mid afternoon, I was pacing and Pat Petkau walks past me and says, “Herbie, I know exactly how you feel.  We I was planning Karen’s surprises birthday party I was a…”  We both looked up the stairs and saw Lisa coming down from Dick Angelo’s office.  Pat looks at me, I look at Pat, all the rest of the staff are frozen and not saying anything.  Lisa continues to walk down the stairs (I thought for sure just playing it cool) and walks past me as we shared a smile with each other and walks out the door back up to the dinning hall.  Everyone still in the Ministry Center looks at each other and says, “Do you think she heard us?”

Well, the time finally came.  It was 4:00 PM.  I picked Lisa up at the dining hall and we drove to her place.  Meanwhile, the staff at that moment went to the dinning hall as we left and began to put away all the chairs and tables left in the dining hall to set up a little round table with a nice table setting, two chairs, candles, some decorative trees, and also putting up some black curtains over the windows to hide what would be going on over at the ski hill later.  Lisa and I arrived at her place and we took Bauer out for a walk so that He was taken care of for the rest of that evening.  Bauers walk only took 30 minutes and inside I was panicking.  We were way ahead of schedule.  She began to get ready and I just played with Bauer to keep my mind off of things (Every so often looking at the clock).  Fortunately, her prep time lasted almost all the way to 5:00 .

We got back in the truck and I told her, “We have to pick-up the photographer” as we headed back to camp.  I also said, “The only catch is you have to help me pick him up.”  As we got to camp there was “normal” camp registrations going on with Via de Cristo.  I pulled into the parking space and escorted Lisa up to the Dinning Hall main entrance.  We walked in and there was Jesse behind a podium.  He said, “Good Evening! Welcome to Camp Forest Springs.  Do you have a reservation?” I said, “Yes, ‘Drackley’ party of two.”  Meanwhile, Lisa is just laughing at us and the whole situation .  Jesse flips through pages and pages of nothing in his little notebook then points randomly and says, “Ah yes, here it is… right this way.”  As we walked into the dinning hall - even I was amazed.  The staff - really did go beyond the call of duty to make the room special for Lisa and I.  There were little Christmas Tree lights on the trees, lights dimmed down low, it was really really special.  Earlier that day I asked Reanna to put on Lisa’s place a little ugly Lego ring I through together the night before.  As Lisa and I sat down I told Lisa, “Well, you were expecting a ring tonight.  Will this one do ?”  She laughed and played along and even tried the ring on.

At this time Jesse, came back to our table to tell Lisa and I that as a complimentary gift of Camp Forest Springs we offered a free photo shoot.  Lisa is still smiling and laughing but she got up and went along with it .  Jesse took several quick shots of us around the room and then brought us back to our table.  As he was leaving he ask, “We’ll do the rest of the shots later?”  I nodded and then he told us our waitress would be out shortly.

Reanna then came to our table and shared with us the menu: Philly cheese stake sandwich or Grilled Chicken sandwich, water, ice tea, and chips.  Lisa took the Philly and Ice Tea - I took naturally what was left . (Later I found out that Chris, Buffy, Beth, couldn’t make it to the proposal - Lori was able to make it with the sandwiches from Mann Made).

With each bite I kept saying to myself - ‘you can do this’, ‘keep eating’, ‘don’t barf!’  I pulled it off because again - she thought I was acting “normal.”

Reanna then came out with Lisa’s first note and clue for her scavenger hunt.  These notes lead Lisa throughout the building of Lakeview center up and down.  On this hunt Lisa was picking up the bits of items and memories I had kept from our previous dates.  As Lisa’s clues lead her downstairs that was when the staff began to proceed down the hill to form their letters.  The second to last clue lead her back our table where there was our dessert (a truffle).  By this time Jesse was across the Lake giving the Staff directions to make sure the words were legible from the dinning hall.

Then Reanna came and gave me a note. It was the final clue for Lisa.  It said:
I guess right now it’s time to go
But before that, we take… our trash to the window?
They call it “busing,” I don’t get that. Who comes up with these words, oh well, let us make tracks.
The rest of this night has lots to come, let us move quickly to get it all done:)

Oh ya, one more thing, it’s a beautiful day, just out the window… what… does… that… say?

Lisa looked and me with a questioning expression - I told her, “Well, we should do what it says.”  She got up and made her way to the window facing the Ski Hill.  And she saw the people… then the “M” and “A” then she saw and read it all out loud “Lisa will you marry him.”  Hidden next to her was my Lego Ring.  I pulled it out and knelt down on one need behind her as she was screaming towards the window. Jesse, later told us that he could hear the screaming from the cedar fire circle where he was talking the pictures  She turned around and I asked her, “Lisa, will you marry me?”  Taking her ring out of the head of the Lego ring I placed it on her finger.  She turned towards the hill again and began telling the people on the hill to “COME IN, COME IN!”  To which I said, “LISA! What’s your Answer?!?!”  She then screams, “Yes! Yes!”  Reanna, handed me a radio and I said, “Staff this is her answer…”  She then screams into the radio, “YES!”

There you have it!  After that the staff came back across the lake to congratulate us and I nearly passed out . We went back to her place and I just smiled as she called one person after another telling them all the details of the day.

Thank you all for reading through all of these posts.  Again, these are mainly written down for Lisa and I as a documentary of the events that lead up to the proposal.  If you have read through all of theses - wow… you must really like us .