Proposal

Some engagement photos taken by our wedding photographer, Cal Landau. (The last photo was never one of my favorites...but it was one of Joe's favorites. He loved it because that was my "I love Dr. Joseph Lin most in the world" face.)

Let me tell you a story. It's a story about a boy named Joe and a girl named Karen (that's me.) Six years ago, Joe and I discovered that we were quite smitten with one another. The beginning of our relationship was artificial and forced, thanks to our parents. We found ourselves hanging out as a result of another ho-hum matchmaking experiment so often initiated by Taiwanese moms and dads. Joe was the obedient one, going with the flow. I was the bad one, pretending to be obedient but slyly trying to sabotage the plan. Clearly, it was my plan that backfired.

Maybe I'll go into more detail another time. Today, I'll focus on the proposal.

Joe and I had talked about marriage. But we never discussed dates or went ring-shopping. In fact, towards the end of February 2002, I remember having a number of conversations in which I said something like, "Yeah...I definitely think he's the one. But, we're in no hurry. I figure maybe we'll get engaged next year or so." Little did I know that around that time, Joe was asking my parents for my hand in marriage. (My dad gave Joe a huge bear hug and said, "What took you so long?" My mom was bursting at the seams having to keep this information from me, and proceeded to call everyone in Taiwan to tell them the news.)

At the time, Joe was living in Cleveland, and I was living in Philadelphia. Joe made plans to visit me. He would spend Friday, March 1 with his family in Monroeville, then come see me on March 2. Later in the week, we would head to Western PA together to hang out with our families.

Instead, I received a call from Joe on Friday, March 1. He said, "I decided that I can't wait to see you. I'm coming over right now." I later learned, that he had driven to Monroeville to pick up my engagment ring. When he saw it, he got so excited, he couldn't wait to propose. Joe told me that he drove all the way to Philadelphia with my ring on his pinky so that he could look at it the whole time.

Every Friday night, I attended a church fellowship. When Joe was in town, we would go together. I remember making pasta in my apartment that day, so that Joe and I could have a quick meal when he arrived, before heading to church. I also remember the fire alarm going off (no, it wasn't my fault. I promise.) and having to walk down sixteen flights of stairs. And I remember calling my mom while waiting to go back inside. My mom sounded super excited to hear that Joe was visiting a day early. This might have been a clue if:
1.) engagement was on my radar (it wasn't.) or
2.) my mom didn't get super excited every time she talked about Joe.

It turns out that Joe made it to my apartment a little later than expected. We decided to head straight to church and eat afterwards. Joe contributed much more to the discussion than usual that evening. I think he was pretty antsy. He had the ring rolling around in his pocket, and it was making him crazy having to sit still and wait. When we got out of church, it was close to 11pm. I turned to Joe and said, "You must be starving. Let's go back to my place and eat!" Joe said, "Nah. I'm not that hungry, and it's a beautiful night. Let's take a walk." Remember how I said that engagement wasn't on my radar? Not even the tiniest blip. Otherwise, Joe's statement should have been a one hundred foot neon sign. Why? Because if you knew Joe, you know that he was never not hungry. And, March 1, 2002 in Philadelphia was not a particularly beautiful night. It was cold! But who was I to refuse a lovely evening walk with my sweetie?

Joe decided that we should walk over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. From there, you can see a beautiful view of the city. Maybe the night was more beautiful than I thought, because there were other people admiring the view from the top of the famous museum steps. We even saw two people playing conga drums. Joe led me to a bench near the entrance of the museum. We were just about to sit down when a police car drove up, flashing its lights. The cop was sending everyone away. I immediately jumped up and started to head back towards the steps. Joe appeared extremely reluctant to go. I was dragging him to the steps. Joe is such a rule follower, this should have been another big clue that something unusual was happening. By the time we were back at the top of the steps, the police car was focused on some cars several yards away. Joe urged me to sit down again. I couldn't figure out why he was being so weird, but I finally sat down. Before I knew it, Joe was on his knees asking me to marry him. I looked at him in shock and said..."maybe?" The fact that Joe had just proposed wasn't really registering in my brain. I decided that he must be joking. Joe had slipped a ring on my finger, but he was covering it with his hand. So what did I do next? I started laughing. Then I said, "You're funny. You just got me some smiley face ring from Wal-mart, didn't you?" Joe replied, "yup." Still laughing, I stood up...and then I looked down. My jaw dropped. On my hand was the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. Joe had done an amazing job choosing it. I always joked with him that that was the real reason I finally said, "yes."

Before we left, Joe handed me his cell phone and said, "you have to tell your parents."
"Are you crazy?" I said. "It's so late!"
"Trust me. Your parents haven't slept all week."
He was right of course. And my mom stayed up even longer just to call everyone in Taiwan again.

And that is the story of our engagement. Minutes before midnight, six years ago, on March 1, 2002.