As many of you have heard, Christina and I have finally gotten engaged. Due to sheer number of people asking us how it happened, whether I screwed up (hehe) and whether or not the performance was worthy of her saying yes, we've both decided to sum up our experience in this short story.
You may or may not know that I'm not the most careful schemer when it comes to planning surprises for Christina. She has ruined many of my previous attempts to surprise her. That made planning this engagement that much more difficult. The idea I finally settled on was to go with her to New York City and propose to her while skating at the Rockefeller Center in front of the giant Christmas tree. I didn't really have a date or a plan set for this, I just knew "skating" and "Rockefeller Center". Great idea right? Read on!
The trip to New York went as planned and we even got Jasper and Darana join us! On Friday, December 30th, our third day in New York, we decided to that we'd definitely skate somewhere in manhattan and maybe at the Rockefeller Center. Even though I was planning on asking her at the rockefeller center, I would have been happy with proposing at central park or any other skating rink in Manhattan. The day started badly with miserablely cold weather. Througout the day, We made our way to several ice rinks, and EVERY single one was completely PACKED with people. The Rockefeller Center was the worst, with people lining up for hours to skate. Needless to say, we didn't get to skate anywhere. Christina was soooooo disappointed because she suspected I would propose when we went skating. She doesn't like crowds so she was in a pretty bad mood once we decided to leave. I don't like crowds either so I was also annoyed. To top it off, my mind was in a frenzied panicbecause I had absolutely no backup plan!! I really had no idea what to do. Walking away from the ice rink, I prayed to God that somehow, the opportunity would arise where I could propose.
Riding on the bus back to our hotel in New Jersey, I noticed that the waterfront in New Jersey overlooks the Manhattan skyline. A light went "click" in my head and I knew that was where I wanted to take her. As soon as I got back to the hotel, I looked up the directions to the waterfront with Jasper. I then told Chris to bundle up because we were going out. She reluctantly agreed to go.
The waterfront was everything I could ever have imagined. After parking, Chris and I split from Jasper and Darana and immediately we walked through a path littered with beautiful street lamps and even walked under a small wooden arch that looked like it belonged in a wedding ceremony. It was quite romantic. We continued walking and we eventually came to an abandoned pier. I made Chris climb a fence to get there (she HATED that part). Once over, we had the quiet dark pier to ourselves. Chris was so afraid we'd be busted for trespassing by cops. She kept looking over my shoulder, expecting a big cop to show up and arrest us..haha. I brought along my MP3 player with headphones and played our song "Amazed" by Lonestar as we danced. After the song I professed my love to her (very cheesy). At first she laughed at me, then she cried. I guess Chris likes my cheesy lines! After the chesse, I was about to propose....standing up. Luckily, before I could ask, Chris said "wait!" and gently pushed me down on one knee and then I popped the question. Even though she doesn't remember it, she did say "Yes Rob, you're the man of my dreams"...haha...ok, she just said "yes". After slipping the ring on her finger I asked her if she liked it and she said she couldn't see it because it was too dark.
After proposing, we joined Jasper and Darana in a seafood restaurant called "Arthur's Landing" that we passed by walking to the dock and we all had possibly the best dinner of our entire trip. The restaurant also overlooked the manhattan skyline, providing a breathtaking view that we will all remember.
This entire proposal was not planned. I just happened to see the waterfront. We just happened to find the romantic path. We just happened to find the abandoned dock. We just happened to find the amazing restaurant. The plans I had to to propose to Christina fell apart but in return God blessed us with the perfect place and perfect circumstances for our engagement. It's almost as if God said "No, my way is much better" and from the happy look in Christina's face whenever you talk to her about our engagement, God was right.
God Bless you All!
Rob and Christina
