BIG NEWS

Well, I have to report the news that as of Christmas Day, I became engaged to Kevin Hagan. I haven't blogged about him very much in an effort to keep my dating life to myself, but now it is quite clear that he's sticking around for a while, I feel you need to know how wonderful he is and how beautiful is the story that brought us together.

It all began with an internet search I did on my couch in November of 2004. While looking for a Baptist internship full of diversity and a supportive mentor, I discovered Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC. Not only did I fall in love with a church which would want to ordain me to the gospel ministry two years later, but I found a community of faith that would lead me to my future husband.

Kevin and I first met at a party he was hosting for a member of the Young Adult group at Calvary in June of 2005. I remember us talking about a lot of in-dept stuff that night and enjoying meeting him, but then I was totally in pastoral mode thinking nothing about a romantic relationship for myself. Kevin was in a job that kept him out of the city most of that summer, so I saw him only a few more time before my "offical" duties at Calvary ended. I left DC in August and soon began my last year of Divinity School.

Then, October 22 came around. Kevin called me out of the blue to invite me to lunch in Goldsboro, NC (the small town where I was doing a year long internship) the next day. We both had recently informed our pastor, Amy of our interest in each other (she played matchmaker a little). I was excited that Kevin was employed by the United States Postal Service-- as I've loved the mail my whole life. However, I told him no first lunch when he first asked because of the craziness of that Sunday afternoon . . .

I came to my senses on my way to church that morning and took him up on his offer for lunch, and from there things took off. (Thanks to Pastor Jackson for letting me off for a few hours that day!)

It was great that my interest in Calvary meant I had already planned and paid for trips to DC in November and December. Thus, for the rest of the school year, he and I did the long distance thing, taking turns visiting each another. Then, in the spring we began to travel together and found much joy in spending even more time together going to CA over spring break, to GA, TN, and TX over the summer. We both love traveling and exploring new places. After graduating from Duke and spending a summer in Durham, I moved to the DC area in August of this year to both spend more time with Kevin and also to follow in faith that God just might have a job for me in this grand city also.

Now, I can say that I'm the luckiest girl in the world as I both have Kevin and a fabulous job. Kevin is a compassionate soul overflowing with gifts of leadership and discernment and faithfulness to family, friends and faith. He has a graciousness about him which means that that he fits in almost anywhere-- from the five star resturant to the Waffle House. He is dedicated to anything he commits himself to and has surrounded himself with the most amazing group of friends I have ever seen. He is spontanous when I am stuffy and shops well when I am a penny pincher but I feel our differences complement each other. On a personal note, I delight in the fact that he supports my vocational pursuits fully and loves the church enough to support me through the hardships of the ministry. And he loves me in spite of my "gifts" of crying at unappropriate times, losing almost anything at a moment's notice, and my having a personality which needs more alone time than he does. I couldn't be prouder to be Hagan in the near future!

So this is how he proposed:

The story goes that we decided several months ago to spend the week after Christmas together with both of our families. I flew to GA on Christmas Day in the early a.m. Everything was normal... we exchanged presents in the morning, had Christmas lunch with his parents, etc. Luckily for Kevin I was exhausted and needed to take a nap in the afternoon. During this time, he called my parents to ask for their blessing (he knew that my mom couldn't keep a straight face if he had told her previously) and got everything ready down at his parent's cabin (on the family "compound"). The ploy to get me there was that he had presents for me to open that he didn't want me to open in front of his parents... I was thinking what in the world could this be? ... Yet totally not having a clue because we had recently had a fight about getting engaged. I told him I was ready and he said it would be several more months as he had "issues" to work out before he proposed (mind you, he'd be looking at rings for six weeks and there weren't issues).

Around 6:30 pm, we got to the cabin (note worthy is that there is taxidermy on the walls and John Deere stuff everywhere). My present to open was a book that he called the "Story of Us." It was pictures of our lives together since we began dating with a storyline along the way. It had tons of pics of our family and friends (which I LOVED of course).

He wrote on the next to last page all the things he loves about me with a picture of us at the bottom which said: "Which lead me to say... Will you marry me?" On the last page there was a picture of Kev in a tux down on one knee with the ring box in his hand. By this time he is holding the ring box with three red roses on his knees. I was shocked and didn't say anything for a long time (especially because these were the biggest diamonds I'd ever seen).

But of course I said yes. Kevin planned the timing perfectly because then we got to spent another day with his parents and other relatives before heading to AL to spend time with mine. What a week of family love I've just had!

We don't know when we are getting married, but it will be sometime within the year. Hooray!