This secret has been so hard to keep! Not that I really kept it all that well, but one advantage of living 2000 miles away is that I could tell almost anyone living here in New England knowing that it wouldn’t really get back to anyone in Texas.

So, now I can tell you – Kory proposed and Rebecca said YES!

We couldn’t be happier.

Rebecca is a treasure – a godly young woman, beautiful inside and out – with a wonderful, loving family.

Proverbs says this: An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. (31:10)

And she is just that – excellent and precious. I thank God for placing her in Kory’s life and ours.

They met in Social Dance class (a P.E. elective) at Baylor in the fall of 2016, and we are all rejoicing that Baylor, as of 1996, started to allow dancing on campus – and that Camille talked Rebecca into taking the class with her!

We’ve known for handful of months that this was coming. There have been numerous phone calls and text messages – about diamond rings and perfect timing and potential dates and the definition of love and the call to marry.

When your 22 year old son wants your perspective on the biblical foundations and meaning of marriage, how can your heart not be overcome with gratitude?  When he encourages you to read This Momentary Marriage by John Piper for yourself, because “it is sooooooo good, Mom” and then goes on to explain that he learned so much from “reading the chapter on forgiveness and forbearance yesterday,” how can you not cry tears of joy?

And how can you not go searching for this post when you know that you’ve prayed over and over for his whole life for this very thing to happen?

The Lord has so sweetly and specifically answered our prayers for Kory!

We had a ton of fun celebrating their engagement last weekend.

It worked out really well, since Robert and Kayla were already in Texas for a mission trip to Houston with our church. I flew in toward the end of the trip, got to spend time with my dad, my grandmother, and my sister from Colorado, and then picked them up in Austin on Wednesday after their exciting bus trip from Houston to Austin. They were delayed a day due to the whole state of Texas shutting down over icy roads, but we still had plenty of time to prepare for the engagement party that would happen on Saturday in Waco right after the proposal.

Even Cooper, who had already started classes back at Gordon College just two days prior, flew in for the weekend!

I’d been texting with Rebecca’s mom for a couple of weeks about the party. We had decided on chili with all the fixings, a cake, cookies, tea, lemonade, and water. Kory had created a Facebook event page (all a secret from Rebecca) and I watched the number of RSVP’s increase to 60 in two short weeks. There might have been 70 people there when it was all said and done.

It’s kind of a new thing (maybe a southern thing…a Texas thing?) to have all of your friends and family gathered for a surprise party right after the actual proposal, and I love it. We were all gathered at Rebecca’s sister’s home in Waco, which her family had decorated especially for the party. We spent the time meeting each other for the first time, getting the food ready, and tracking the couple on everyone’s “Find My Friends” app.

“They’ve left the coffee shop!”

“They’re driving toward the Law School!”

They’re AT THE TREE!”

It was nerve-wracking (I had butterflies all day), but so very fun and exciting.

The day before, Robert and I were out shopping for all of the chili ingredients when I received a text message from Rebecca’s mom with a picture of the cake her her husband had made. It stopped me in my tracks (and the paper towel aisle at H.E.B.) and gave me the giggles for the rest of the day. Just take a look:

I just couldn’t get over the thoughtfulness and details of this cake. I immediately texted the photo to my sisters so they could share in the delight of this happy occasion and marvel with me at Rebecca’s cake-making dad!

Her parents also made these cookies…

All of it – cake and cookies – was gluten free, and honestly, the best gluten free cake and sugar cookies I’ve ever had.

My sister, Melissa, couldn’t come to the party, but she made those mini corn muffins and a big veggie and dip tray for the event. We spent the morning at her home in north Austin cooking two gigantic batches of chili – a beef and bean and a white bean and chicken, before making the trek to Waco for the 5pm party with my Dad’s brand new Ford Expedition loaded down with Fritos, cheese, sour cream, guac, and more.

Kory’s friend Paul even flew in from Virginia for the big day. In order to keep it a surprise from Rebecca, Paul had to hide out in Kory’s apartment for several days, but we put him to work opening about a hundred cans of beans and tomato sauce.

After the proposal, Kory and Rebecca came to the house where we were all gathered. Just the family members greeted them first with cheers and claps and hugs, and then Kory took Rebecca to the back yard where all of their friends were waiting.

If she wasn’t completely surprised by the proposal, I think Rebecca was definitely surprised by the large crowd of friends and family there to celebrate. It was such a blessing to watch them all enjoy the moment together and truly rejoice with one another over a good thing like marriage.

We got to spend Sunday evening with the newly engaged couple at one of our favorite places in all of Texas – The Grist Mill. Later that night they headed back to Austin for the work week (she’s a high school science teacher) and we started packing for the journey back to Massachusetts.

The text messages are all about wedding details now – venues, dates, pre-marital counseling.

Kory is sleeping well again after months of stressful secret keeping.

And though there have been jokes about why we didn’t just marry them off last Saturday – there was family, there were friends, there was food – we can hardly wait to celebrate these two again in July!

He who finds a wife finds a good thing
And obtains favor from the Lord.

Proverbs 18:22

Lots of gratitude for God’s favor and abundant blessing these days!