The best day(s) of my life

March 28th is a special day for me. By some twist of fate (God) that is the exact day that two very important things happened to me.

March 28, 2005

It was Easter weekend and Ben and I had been dating for almost 2 years. As I've said over and over, I LOVE Easter. Love it. I think I may have mentioned it to Ben a time or two or fifty by that time in our relationship. I was interning in San Antonio at the time and so it was going to be an extra special Easter weekend to me because Ben was coming to SA to visit and it was his first Easter with my family. I even bought him an Easter shirt and tie to coordinate with my Easter dress and my mom had an Easter basket made for him with all kinds of goodies. He had requested that we go to eat on the Riverwalk that Saturday night, which I was all for. Contrary to popular belief, just because you live in SA, does not mean that you eat on the Riverwalk every time you eat out- so it's kind of a treat when you do go downtown. He told me that he had a surprise for me at the restaurant, and I honestly had no clue what it would be. We had talked about marriage, and it was definitely in our plans, but Ben was VERY adamant about a short engagement. I knew we were probably going to get married that December or next January, so I figured he would pop the question sometime that summer. So, needless to say, the thought of getting a ring that night crossed my mind, but I didn't really think that was what my surprise was. We got to the restaurant, one of my favorites, Casa Rio, and sat down, ordered drinks, food, etc.

Nothing.

We ate our food and the waiter cleared our plates and then one of the hostesses walked up with a bouquet of gerbera daisies. She asked if I was Paula and I said yes and told me that they were for me! How sweet! Ben had managed to get a bouquet of my favorite flowers to the restaurant for me! We finished up at the restaurant and I honestly thought that was my surprise.

As we were leaving, Ben suggested we go for a walk on the river and visit our favorite spot. Since this was Easter weekend, the weather was crazy and it happened to be freezing cold and windy. I wasn't terribly excited about a walk and I think I even tried to talk Ben out of it. He INSISTED that we walk to our spot. I was still clueless as to what was about to happen and went with him.

When we got to the spot where he first told me he loved me, I looked around and was ready to go. I was cold. All of a sudden, Ben was on one knee and pulled a ring box out of his boot (tricky!). I was shocked! Through my tears I managed to say "yes!" and that began the rest of my life...

newly engaged Easter morning

March 28, 2009

This is another day that I will never forget. Never. We had been trying to get pregnant for 7 months. I had taken so many and I was so used to negative pregnancy tests at this point that I wasn't all that confident when I took one that Saturday morning. In fact, just two nights before I had told Ben that I didn't think this was our month. I felt so strongly God telling me that my time would come, that while I wasn't confident that the test would be positive, for the first time I was completely calm and at peace taking it.

Ben happened to be gone on a guys weekend with some college friends when I woke up and took the pregnancy test. In previous months, it was pretty obviously negative almost immediately. This one showed the faintest second line immediately. I tried not to get too excited and made myself put the test down and walk out of the bathroom for the required 3 minutes. Exactly 3 minutes later, I ran in and saw 2 bright pink lines! Of course I proceeded to take another 2 tests just to be sure and every single one of them said the same thing: I was pregnant.

I cried. I prayed. I went on a run to clear my head. I prayed some more. Then I started working on how I was going to tell Ben that he was going to be a daddy. Actually, I had planned how I was going to tell him about 7 months earlier when I was just sure I was going to get pregnant the first month. Ha! I had put together a slide show of pictures of the two of us from when we started dating to the present. I wanted the last picture to be of me holding a positive test. I had planned on making it into a DVD and having him come watch a "movie" with me and have that come on instead.

There were just a few problems with that.

1. I didn't have the camera. Ben had it with him camping.

2. How do you even make a DVD?

3. Our DVD player was broken at the time.

Before I had the realization that I didn't know how to make a DVD and that our DVD player didn't work, I went to Walgreens and bought a cheap $10 digital camera. FYI, don't waste your $10 on a digital camera. This is the quality of picture:

So, I thought of something else. Ben had been wanting a carafe to take to coffee in to Sunday school for a long time, but we never remembered to pick one up. I decided I would go buy one for him and when he came home, I would tell him that I had a present for him and give him that and the positive pregnancy test.

When he got home the next day, I did exactly that. Luckily, he was more excited about the baby than the coffee pot!

What makes March 28th special: