last night "operation marriage proposal" finished with a huge success.
operation marriage proposal went into effect on tuesday, with a phone call to a secret agent, we shall call him "erindad," relayed message to secret agent "can you meet me for secret coffee tomorrow?"
erindad "sure"
at secret coffee location, had conversation with erindad, "can i have your blessing to ask your daughter to marry me?"
erindad, "sure"
the operation went into a dangerous high gear..
i said to erindad "i need you to secure a family dinner for saturday evening. mother should cook, but not know that operation marriage proposal is in effect. can you do this, it is dangerous?"
erindad, "i don't know, but i'll try"
thursday with a phone call from erin saying, "mom wants us to come over on saturday night for family dinner. i'd like to go. can we do that?" i knew that erindad was successful in his mission.
thursday was day of picking up precious hardware. kept hardware very close so not to be detected.
friday was friday.. calm before the storm
saturday, convinced erin that i was working at the church all day. (i did a bit, but not a whole lot) thus, i would meet her at said family house separately.
at 5:50pm met at rally point with jonathon & family plus my brother shawn & tiffany. they were all given their assignments.
at 6:30pm were in said family driveway, last secret phone call was made to erindad "we're in the driveway"
6:40pm, last instructions with an abort on walking in the front yard to go around the back of the house.
6:45pm, jonas leads the charge into house with peach roses in hand. jonas choked with his words (a lot of pressure for a three year old). with encouragement from mother he continued to crack 
under pressure. in followed shawn & tiffany equipped with more peach roses. then followed erindad with more roses. at this point the gig was up, innocent bystanders were caught in the crossfire & erin knew. i swooped in (stumbled probably, but i like to remember it as swooping) and forgot all the fine words i'd planned on saying and just said "will you marry me?" to this i got immediate non-verbal confirmation with a delayed "yes"... after initial hug, i think i began to recite all the fine words i'd worked on saying, but it was too late. never the less, "operation marriage proposal" had worked to.... well it worked pretty well.
7:00pm, after some pouring of wine we sat down for dinner, saying bye for the night to the norman family. over dessert we called family members that were not in attendance. this is where i received a resounding set of approvals like "i thought this would never happen" or "it's about damn time you got off your butt and proposed." gosh i love my family they are so supportive.
today has been a wonderful and surreal day all in the same. we've had a great time telling the story (to friends, family, church family, youth community, random person in the street, those even more random people who are near us when we are on the phone, etc.) of "operation marriage proposal" and not answering questions about "operation marriage day" postponing that for another day.
for those friends out there who are wondering where their phone call is... it's coming. until i get so tired of telling this story that i just email you. shalom -g
