She Said YES!!!

Everyone in Justin's life has always said he is so picky about girls. He went through a long period where he didn't even date, because he couldn't find anyone he was interested in. My mother used to always ask me if he had a girlfriend, and I would always answer, "No, he is very picky." He has really high standards and there are not many matches around. I used to tell Justin that if you look in the garbage can, you are only going to find trash. He finally decided that church might be a good place to look since half of the people at our church of over 20,000 are single. Nothing. I think there were times he would get discouraged. There was something wrong with every girl. Until now.

Several months ago, a girl, named Shannon, caught his eye at Group Sync at church. What a great place to meet your spouse. It wasn't long before he showed me her Facebook pictures and asked her out. Shortly after their first date, he told me he knew it was early, but she was the one.

Soon the family met her and she passed the test. The biggest test of all is the "Sister Test" and she passed with flying colors.

Shannon is from Bangs, Texas and she is a Kindergarten teacher. The connection was immediate and it wasn't long before they were talking about the future. With her birthday in December, Christmas and New Years, no proposal. Justin was trying to throw her off.

He came up with a plan to ask her Saturday night at our house while we were all at church. Jennifer and I had so much fun running around getting all the props and decorating the house. Since purple is her favorite color, we bought purple roses and flowers. We had candles and rose petals from the door, down the hall, to the dining room.

Shannon said she could not figure out what was going on until she saw the "Will you marry me?" sign. She said that is when she lost it.

She looks beautiful as always, but her eyes are just a little red.

The plan for the night had originally been to cook out steaks. We all ended up going to Mi Chula after church and when they called us to tell us the details of the engagement, they ditched the steaks and came with us. We had fun hearing all the stories.

One great story is that Justin said after he gave her the ring, she didn't even look at it. Later, she said that was because it was not about the ring, it was about the moment. I love her for that. Now, she can't take her eyes off the ring.

Yesterday, Justin called and said his cheeks were killing him because he couldn't quit smiling. I hope you never lose that!

We love you both and are so excited for you. Congratulations Justin and Shannon.