He asked and I said....

"Shut up. Is that real?"

February 10th is a special day in the Woolley house. Today, we celebrate the anniversary of the day that Rusty proposed.

That had been such a terrible week for me. A dear friend, Dr. John Hill, had unexpectedly passed away. He had been such a source of wisdom and encouragement in my life and it was extremely hard to say goodbye. He had played a key role throughout my pregnancy and was there the night that I placed Holland for adoption. He came to pray blessing and protection over Holland and all of our families. Now, we were going to lay him to rest on the next day, Holland's birthday, February 11th.

I went to Rusty's house for dinner after a very long day of work. I was exhausted and not looking forward to what the next day would hold for me. February 11th is always such a hard day for me, but this year was going to be even harder than ever.

I was in my scrubs with no makeup left and my hair in a ponytail. I came over and he had picked up take-out Pei Wei for us (one of my favorites.) We sat on the couch and ate it in front of the tv. Starting to sound really romantic, right?

After dinner, Rusty went into the kitchen to clean up. I laid there on the couch, exhausted. He said, "I have a surprise." I looked over to see him walking towards me with two small "to go" containers in his hand. He told me that he got dessert. I told him that I was stuffed and that "unless that is a piece of key lime pie with a ring stuck in it, I don't want it."

He continued to walk towards the couch and hand me the container. "Sorry, it's not. Would you just open it?"

I opened the container to find....
a piece of key lime pie with a ring stuck in it.

He got down on his knee and asked, "Will you marry me?" That's when I said, "Shut up! Are you serious? Is that real?"

You see, Rusty and I's first date was an evening at Second Baptist with a stop at the House of Pies afterward. He got a slice of apple pie and I got a slice of key lime pie. We talked for hours and I knew immediately that he was someone that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. The kind of man that I always dreamed of, but never thought that I deserved.

So, 6 months later I am sitting in his living room, completely NOT expecting him to propose tonight, and now I am sucking the key lime off of the exact princess cut diamond that I had always wanted! Had I known what that container ACTUALLY had, I would have never said that. I really was just kidding!

He told me that he thought about proposing on the 11th, but he did not want to take away from Holland's day. This way, he would propose on the 10th and then I would have something to smile about on the 11th.

Thank you babe, for being such a thoughtful husband. Thank you for loving my son enough to honor him. But, loving me enough to want to take away the pain in my life. I will always regret that Doc did not get to meet the amazing man that he prayed for to come into my life.

By the way, we went in another room to call everyone and Hobby ate the key lime pie. I guess it was a perfect ending to our night. It may not be a perfect fairy tale, but it is our real life, love story and I would not trade it for anything in the world.