It all happened on April 5, 2002. It seemed like I had been planning this day forever! I had spent the better part of the last three months looking for the perfect ring. All of you out there who have been through this process before know that buying an engagement ring is a lot easier said than done! Carat, Cut, Clarity and Color.. these are the things the jeweler will pound into your head. The infamous "Four C's". The one thing the jewelers don't want to talk about it Cost! It took quite a while to sort everything out.

I was counting on having that "This is the ring that was meant to be on her finger." feeling and after looking at about a hundred different rings it finally happened. It had just come in the day I went into the jewelers and as soon as I saw it I just knew. I bought it and took it home with me that same day.

I couldn't help taking the ring out and staring at it. This ring was about to change my life! I even took it to work with me and took it out on my breaks and just sat there thinking about that ring resting on my future wife's finger. It was a funny feeling. If everything went as planned I wasn't going to be a boyfriend anymore, I was going to be a fiance!

So now I had the ring.. all that was left was to propose. One of the main things I wanted to accomplish with the proposal was that I wanted it to be a total surprise. This is kind of hard to do after you have been in a relationship for almost three years because with every romantic gesture that I would initiate Melissa would start to wonder... "Is this it?" So I had to be very careful how I planned everything so that I didn't tip her off to my plans.

I had been looking for a job in Southern Indiana for the last couple of months and I would be moving away from Michigan City (my home for the previous four and a half years). Melissa and I had spent a large part of our relationship there enjoying the beaches and the dunes at the National Parks so I suggested to Melissa that we should go around to all the beaches that we had visited in the area and collect some sand from each spot so that we could take some of our memories with us wherever we go. Melissa loved the idea so I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some small bottles that are used for sand art. They look like something you would expect to wash up on the beach with a little note tucked inside. So the plan was that we would go around collecting sand and then afterwards we would go out to dinner.

Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating! It was a chilly afternoon when I got home from work and Melissa was not so sure about going to the lakefront where the temperature was sure to be colder due to the wind coming off the lake. Luckily I managed to convince her that we would just do a couple of the beaches now and then go out to eat at Red Lobster. Melissa was already dressed up for dinner and she looked great, but since we were going out to the cold beach she decided that she was not going to where her good clothes. So she put on some sweatpants and a sweatshirt and she took out her contacts and put on her glasses... She looked so cute but she has regretted changing her clothes ever since.

On the drive over to the beach I was a nervous wreck! I had written down the proposal that I wanted to make and I had been reading it over and over. I had practiced it so many times that I knew that when the moment came that the words would be there. But already they were getting twisted in my head. I couldn't remember anything! I kept wanting to reach into my pocket and pull out the paper I had written the proposal on and practice a couple of times but I couldn't. By the time we got to the beach I still didn't have it together. I could remember bits and pieces and I thought that those bits would have to do.

We got out of the car at Kemil Beach and walked halfway to the water. It was a very nice view. The waves were crashing against the shore and the gulls were flying overhead. The only problem was the temperature. It was colder than we had thought it would be and it probably had some part in Melissa deciding to make a competition out of who can fill up their little bottle of sand the fastest! So we put the little paper funnels that we had made into the bottles and we got down on our knees there in the sand and started scooping the sand up in our hands and filled our bottles. I went slow. I wanted her to fill her bottle first. When she had finished her bottle she stood up and I stayed down on one knee. I still remember the look on her face! She didn't have a clue what I was about to do! I started talking about us and our future and it finally clicked. The words that I had been practicing were there.. I pulled out the ring and asked her to marry me and she said yes!

We still have those little bottles of sand. On the side of each bottle is written:

John & Melissa's Engagement
Kemil Beach Sand - Lake Michigan - April 5, 2002 - 5:15 pm