The Proposal: Lauren's Story

Here's my side of our proposal story... (I know...it's kind of long!)

Let me first start by saying that I have known for quite some time that I was going to marry Mark Jobe. After a few months of dating, we started to mention marriage and our future many times. Sometime in late August we decided that the summer of 2010 was going to be the time. After this conversation I was anxiously waiting to be asked the “big question.” I was so in love with Mark I couldn’t wait for it to be official. My parents were out of town for about a month during this time and Mark had made a comment at some point that it wasn’t going to happen before they got home because he wanted to ask for their blessing.

So… my parents got home on Sunday Sep. 13. I was really curious when/how Mark was going to get together with my dad. Well, Monday Sep. 14th my dad gets up to leave at 7:30 at night to go to Home Depot in the rain. This is very untypical for my dad! Once he’s home for the night he doesn’t usually leave. I had a feeling he was out to meet with Mark. So I text Mark during the time my dad was gone and didn’t get a response till later that night. Supposedly he “fell asleep” and his phone was on vibrate. I wasn’t buying it, and quickly came to the conclusion that he had just asked my dad for my parents blessing.

I was super excited! It was hard to keep my suspicions to myself and ended up telling my sister, friends, and co-workers that I thought I was going to be proposed to on Friday. I figured it must be Friday since he was in such a hurry to ask my dad and I already had plans with friends on Saturday. Also, Mark had said we were going to an Italian restaurant in Denton that night. All week I had many conversations with people about getting engaged and couldn’t wait for Friday to come!

On Thursday night, I had dinner with Katherine and Jamie and mentioned that tomorrow might be the big day. We were planning on going shopping after we ate, so I thought to myself it would be great to buy a new dress to wear out on Friday. We go to the mall and I find 2 dresses that I love. So I texted Mark if the place we were going to was nice enough for me to wear a dress. He replied saying that it was really casual and he was just planning on wearing shorts. This totally caught me off guard! I’m thinking to myself why would he wear shorts to dinner where he was going to propose? I end up buying the dresses anyway. Later that night Mark came over to my house to hang out and the subject of us getting married came up. He convinced me that it wasn’t going to happen for a while, he told me that he needs time to plan, that he doesn’t rush into anything, and to trust him. I was SO disappointed…before that night I was so convinced it was happening soon. Mark could even tell the disappointment in my face…

Friday morning I wake up feeling disappointed and talked to Katherine and Melissa on my way to work. I told them it wasn’t happening anytime soon. I was convinced it wasn’t going to happen, because Mark is not a good liar and he was just too serious about the subject the night before. All my co-workers even mentioned how the big day was finally here and I had to tell them that it wasn’t going to happen for a while…

My day goes by quickly and I get a text from Mark right after school got out saying that he was in Lewisville at a store and wanted to see if I wanted to meet at Starbucks because he’s been craving a pumpkin spice latte. I tell him that I’ll be there in about 30 min. I had the slightest suspicion that he still might ask me to marry him there because that Starbucks was the place we first met exactly 6 months earlier. When I pull in, Mark gets out of the car and he’s really upset about something. In my head I’m thinking he’s not having a good day and he’s in a bad mood. He’s really not going to propose if he’s like this. I ask him what’s wrong and he just tells me we’ll talk about it when we sit down. We order our drinks and then sit in the exact same place we did on March 18th 2009. Then he starts telling be what’s been bothering him. After a few minutes he gets up to go to the bathroom. When he comes back, his shoe is untied. He makes a grunting noise and gets down to tie it. Again, I’m thinking what’s going on with him and why is he so upset about his shoe being untied.

At that moment he’s on one knee and takes my hand!!! He had several sweet things to say. I can’t even remember everything he said because I was in shock! Of course, he asked me to marry him and I said YES!!! He put the most gorgeous ring on my finger. We spent some time hugging and being excited…I couldn’t believe we were officially engaged! Then he takes me back inside where he had a most beautiful and huge arrangement of red roses for me. We took a few pictures at Starbucks and headed back to Plano to tell my parents. During the ride home lots of information came out… Katherine had actually talked to Mark on Thursday night letting him know that I thought he was going to propose. So Mark needed to convince me that it wasn’t going to happen for another month. It was all part of the plan to surprise me along with being upset at Starbucks. Well it sure worked because I was seriously surprised!

Mark had made reservations at Five Sixty in Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas for us to celebrate. So we spent the rest of the evening calling friends and family about the big news and had a romantic dinner just the two of us looking out at downtown Dallas.

It was the most amazing night! I love Mark so much and I can’t wait for everything God has in store for us. I am so blessed to have him in my life and to have him be my husband!