I'm Pleased to Announce...

It is most definitely time that I updated the people I love on just a tiny bit of the goings on of the last couple of months. Her name is Charisa and I met her in January. After going to the same church our entire lives we met by the grace and providence of God this year. After three months of rather deliberate getting to know eachother we found our passions and interests quite compatible and found we were falling in love. Aside from my school work and volunteering in youthgroup I spent every moment I had getting to know this woman. In the very early stages of our relationship we realistically had to decide if it was worth getting to know eachother in the relatively short amount of time before she left to go overseas for an entire year. We both decided the other was too good to pass up so we went for it and gave it everything we had! We still are and God has been leading us along all the while. I've spent much time in prayer and in fasting that God's will will be done and that ours would follow after his. We have both been very affirmed that this is indeed someone we can serve God next to with all our hearts for all our days... and did I mention that we are in love?
While Charisa was still here we tried to squeeze in as much adventure and romance together as we possibly could. On the list of things we did were (guys get a pen out): a picnic at Lighthouse park one beautiful afternoon listening to the waves, a day-trip to Whistler, sea kayaking down the Nicomekl River to Crescent beach for a stirfry on the beach watching the sun set, hiking in UBC Research Forest in Maple Ridge and a mountaintop picnic, spending lots of time together with our respective families, a day trip to Seattle with her brother and sister-in-law, a romantic walk down Jericho beach dancing on the pier in a light rain with a chocolate mocha and eachother to keep us warm, multiple walks at Crescent Beach (her favourite place in the world), tandem biking around Stanley park with her family, a relaxing sunday afternoon stroll at Iona Beach... the list goes on but I know James is yawning : ) and so, as the story goes, we fell quite into love and embraced eachother as the faceless, nameless man and woman we've been waiting for forever with great anticipation.
On May 1st of 2008 I took Charisa on an epic date. We both dressed up real nice and started at Queen Elizabeth Park where her dad took some beautiful pictures of us (some of which I will post at the end of the blog). We then had tea at the Secret Garden Teahouse followed by a lovely time at Jericho beach where I read her an original work of mine on Prov 31. We then had a five course dinner cooked at a family friend's house in a wonderfully intimate setting and great service. Following that we went to Crescent beach where a quiet candle-lit, chai latte, chocolate dipped strawberry laden setting awaited us. We sat and talked and I told Charisa what she meant to me and why I desired to marry her. Then i asked her to be my wife. The best part was... she said yes : ) I gave her a beautiful ring and we are planning to get married next summer when she gets home from her travels.



May God bless you all richly through his son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
Much love,
S-dubble-rubble