Daniel's version: Friday, April 26th, 2013 is the day I proposed to Sam. She was in New York visiting friends and she decided to take a train down to the D.C. area so we could spend some time together before I left for the Middle East again. We drove down to Monticello to visit the home of Thomas Jefferson. I took the ring with me, but at the time I had a storm of conflicting feelings raging inside of me, so I wasn't sure I could go through with the proposal.
You might ask when I received confirmation from the Lord that I should marry Sam. I never did. God let me use the brain He gave me to decide that she was (still is!) perfect for me. Despite the difference in age (almost 10 years), Sam was more mature than I was in certain areas and I knew that she would always dedicate herself to things of eternal importance. So why the conflicting feelings? I was 34 years old and had serious issues with commitment. I loved the "freedom" offered by the life of a bachelor. I couldn't imagine, and didn't like the thought of loving someone more than I loved my family. I couldn't get used to the "culture shock" of being in a serious relationship. Eternal marriage is kind of a serious relationship.
Anyway, I had the ring with me while we walked around Thomas Jefferson's estate. The conditions weren't right. It wasn't as pretty as I remembered the first time I visited, and there were too many people around. So we drove to Montpelier, the home of James Madison, where the conditions provided a perfect place for the proposal. It took me an hour (sitting on the bench you see in one of the photos) to build up the courage to "pop the question." Eventually we stood up to leave. We had other sites to see. As we started walking away from the bench I pulled Sam back toward that perfect little area and asked her to marry me. A feeling of relief joined the internal storm, not only because she responded to my question in the affirmative, but because I had actually asked the question instead of doing what the Adversary wanted me to do - procrastinate.
Sam's version: Daniel officially proposed to me on Friday, April 26, 2013. The overriding feeling I had after he proposed was relief. I was feeling pretty confident that he would propose to me sometime during the month of April, but I did not know when. Earlier in the month he was in Utah where we had gone ring shopping and talked more about getting married. We were thinking about getting married in July. One weekend we were in San Diego, California visiting his sister, Lizzie, and her family. Lizzie even took our “engagement” pictures on the beach even though we were not officially engaged, but I wanted pictures because we would not have time to have pictures taken during the next couple of months because Daniel would be out of the country again for work. Daniel flew back to Virginia and I flew out to New York with my sister, Taylor, a few days later. After spending a few days in the Big Apple, Taylor flew back to Utah, and I rode the train down to Virginia where Daniel picked me up.
We got up early Friday morning to drive down to Charlottesville where we would visit Monticello and James Madison’s Montpelier. It was a beautiful spring day that day and I enjoyed walking the grounds at Monticello as well as touring Thomas Jefferson’s house. We ate a late lunch there, and then decided to drive over to Montpelier to tour the grounds there and James Madison’s house. Because Montpelier is a little out of the way and not as popular as Monticello, there were very few people there. We took a tour of the house first, which was nice, but I remember wishing that the tour guide would step up the pace a little bit. I wanted to get outside and see what else was on the grounds.
The manicured gardens located behind Madison’s house were beautiful. Because it was nearing the end of the day there were times we had the entire garden to ourselves. We found a bench in a secluded corner where we sat and talked for a little bit, made out some, and sat in silence uncomfortably (for me the sitting in silence was a little awkward). Knowing that the time was getting late and that Montpelier would be closing soon, I suggested that we start walking back to the visitor’s center. I got up and started walking when Daniel pulled me back and told me to wait a minute and that he had something to tell me. I asked him what it was, not expecting that he would propose to me there. I honestly thought that he would propose to me later that weekend on either Saturday or Sunday.
He got down on his knees and asked me if I would marry him. I responded with a quick “yes” and felt so happy. He also told me that he loved me, something that I never get tired of hearing. The following is an excerpt from my journal of that day:
“He told me to remember when we went and visited Lee Nelson about three weeks ago and to remember what Lee said. Lee told Daniel that if he kept me and stayed real close that I would get him to the celestial kingdom. Daniel said that he didn’t want me to carry or drag him to the celestial kingdom, but rather that he wanted to walk by my side and have us work together to get there. How I love that man.”
