The Real Roe v. Wade

So, as usual, Justin Taylor as provided another excellent article on abortion and the real Jane Roe from Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in 1973, Roe v. Wade. It's short. So read it.

Engagement Part II

It's been a while since I got engaged, but I figured I would tell you the whole story since I have a little more time. I haven't been very faithful to the blog recently, so I'm going to try to post at least once a week from now on. We'll see how long that lasts. Caroline has already posted a fabulous article that details our engagement story. I'll try to to be too redundant.

Caroline and I started dating on March 6, 2007. 3/6/07. I tried for 3/5/07 to make it easier to remember, but couldn't get all my ducks in a row by then. We had been good friends for a while, so she wasn't surprised that I would be asking her out. We were all at a friends house that night, and I coordinated it with her roommate to be in her apartment to set up a nice romantic scene and surprise her when she walked in the door. I had some nice candles lit to set the mood, and she totally killed it when she walked in the door and turned the lights on, and then wouldn't turn them back off. I proceeded to tell her how much I liked her and officially asked her out in song. An improve of Adam Sandler's Hanukkah song, with different words of course. She said yes.

It wasn't too long before I knew that she was the one I would marry. Once I moved up to DC and we were still together and doing well, I knew it would happen. I was just waiting for the right time. Caroline left for Barcelona in August of 2008. She was really excited to go, but we weren't looking forward to reduced time to talk and living in time zones separated by 6 hours. Knowing that I had a lot to live up to from the way I asked her out, I decided shortly after she left that I would propose in Barcelona.

I had two things I knew I had to do before I went. Get a ring and ask her parents. I was able to do both in one weekend visit to Alabama in October. I met with her uncle who is a jeweler and talked about the kind of ring I wanted and left the diamond from my grandmother's ring with him for the main stone of Caroline's ring. He gave me a great deal and the ring turned out perfectly. I went to her parents house that night, watched the end of the vice-presidential debate between Biden and Palin and went to sleep. Kind of hard to bring up that topic, so I waited until the next morning. I brought it up the next morning, and the conversation was fine. With their blessing and a ring in the works, I headed back to DC.

After much deliberation, I booked the trip to Barcelona and made all of the arrangements. The next decision was whether or not to notify Caroline that I was coming. Many friends told me I should, and many told me I shouldn't. I think it depends on the personality of who I was asking. People who love surprises thought it was incredibly romantic, while those who don't like surprises thought it was a bad idea. I decided that I would risk it and try and surprise her. I did an amazing amount of research/reconnaissance on the areas of Barcelona around where she lived and went to school. My plan was to surprise her just as she got out of class on the morning I arrived. I had talked to her a lot about where her school was, and even got a virtual tour from here using Google Maps, so I knew just where I was going.

Everything went to plan in the entire trip! I was actually very surprised. I was able to surprise her just when I wanted and just where I wanted. I let her walk out of her school, and then started following her down the sidewalk, waiting for her to turn around and see me. When she finally did, she actually wet her pants. It was really awkward. Kidding of course! We spent the rest of the afternoon together and then I proposed that night. About sunset, we went to a palace with a view of the entire city and I proceeded to get down on one knee and pop the question. She said yes, and then I put the ring on her finger. I wanted to propose without the ring, so she would say yes just to me, and then I could put the ring on her finger. So that's what I did, and luckily, she loved the ring. I stayed in Barcelona through the weekend and we had a wonderful time. Her blog contains a much more detailed explanation of the actual proposal and stuff, but I wanted to give a little more history from my end.

This post is late, and definitely long overdue. Thus far, engagement has been great. I keep hearing about how it's not really that much fun, since you have the stressful job of planning a wedding, and you really want to be married right now. We've seen a little bit of this, but overall, it's been awesome to be able to talk about what it will be like to get married. I'm excited. Most guys these days don't really get too exited about marriage, but not this one! I can't wait to be married, and I think this is one thing that makes Christian couples (especially men) different from the world. And I like it. It's refreshing to me and others to be able to talk about my excitement for marriage. Most people don't understand, or respond with something like "you just wait," or "talk to me in a year," but that won't be the case. Sure, marriage will have its unique (and hard!) challenges, but I think we'll be ready to face them together. In a way, I'm kind of looking forward to them.

Well, that's it for engagement!

Engagement

For all of my hundreds of faithful readers out there. I'm engaged. To Caroline Schell. I think she's cool. And a much better blogger than I.

Martial Arts Skills

Vladamir Putin in his new Judo video. Amazing. Notice the Custom embroidery and fear him.

More Jesus is a Friend of Mine

Greetings

Happy first day of Fall, Northern Hemisphere.

Excellent Article - Amazingly accurate and unbiased

Maybe I should actually post something about me instead of just links to articles... Oh well.

So here's a good article about the state of the Christian church in America containing some troubling statistics. The article is relatively short, but if you get tired of reading it, skim it, but make sure you read the last 2-3 paragraphs. Enjoy!

Great Encouraging Post! A Must Read.

So this past weekend was spend with my most amazing friends from Auburn in a 4th of July extravaganza in Washington, DC. It was a great to see everyone, and I'm missing them already! It's great to see the faithfulness of God displayed in how He has sustained all of us so well and how much we've all grown in Him since college. As you'll see from the linked post below, we don't deserve it.

You must read this post. It's a wonderful e-mail from a fantastic Christian leader to others that spoke at a conference. Read it slowly and read every word, and feel free to leave a comment with your opinions.

Contextualizing the Gospel

Check out this fabulous article about how we should present the gospel to others.

I think that contextualizing the gospel is a very big issue today and may post something about it in the future. This article is quite short, you can read it in less than 5 minutes, and you will be VERY ENCOURAGED by it. Read it!