As many of you may already know, I am now proudly wearing a ring on the ring finger of my left hand :) On Tuesday, Marcel proposed and I accepted (of course). Many people here on the ship said it was about time, but I think it was the perfect time for us. I guess I can tell the whole story here :)
We first met within a day of my coming to the Africa Mercy in April of last year. He was tall, generous and someone to speak German with :) The night before he asked me if I would want to start dating we spent two hours talking together speaking German together - just about life and our thoughts about our own plans at that time for the future. The night he asked me out was about 2 weeks after we first met. He asked me if I would want to go walking on the beach which was across the road from the port in Blythe. A bit chilly, but a really nice place and a great place to talk together. A bit to my surprise, I found myself saying yes to dating someone I had just met -- and feeling excited about it.
The past year and a half has been a lot of learning for me. This is the first real relationship for both of us - I have been figuring out lots of things that I have never been faced with before. Learning about being a better commuincator, what each of us apprecites and what things are different, reading '5 Love Languages' and realizing that we have completely different languages, and learning how to trust are just some of the things. I think -- no, I know -- that living on the ship also holds its own challenges. I think most dating couples have to work to find time together, but here on the ship, I think many times the challenge is to find time apart and make sure you are working on relationships with other people as well. Also, having so little time to actually be alone changes a lot of things. But on the other hand, a year and a half dating on the ship is like 5 years of knowing someone in 'the real world.' It has forced me to face issues that I may have been able to ignore or push to the side in any other place but here you need to talk about or it just becomes bigger. Dating and living on the ship is not for everyone, but I have heard others say that God gives grace to those he wants here - and I believe it. He gives the desire and ability to those he wants here - and even has them grow and change :)
Anyhow, to the engagement -- I did know he was going to ask, he had actually asked a 'pre-proposal' question a few weeks ago to see what I thought about getting married as soon as January. I had told him I did not want to wait very long after getting engaged, and he took me seriously :) We had some logistical things to work out with things here on the ship and getting a ring (not so easy in Liberia) and such, but everything fell into place without any problems. I did have an idea what the ring would look like because he asked me what I thought before he ordered it - which I actually liked. I do not wear rings and jewerly, so if I am going to wear something for the rest of my life, I want to like it. I dropped a hint at one point that I thought a beach would be a nice place to ask - sort-of bringing everything full circle from when he asked me out for the first time in England. On Tuesday, he invited me out to dinner and we ended up at a restuarant called Golden Beach. They have an open, covered part of the restuarant and also tables out on the beach. With a little luck, it actually had stopped raining for the first time in about a week, but when we got there, there were no tables out on the beach part because it is rainy season. At first it seemed that it would not be as romantic as hoped, but we noticed that the waiter was letting some people out to look around, so after we had eaten, Marcel asked if it would be okay to go out. We were able to go out and it was actually nice because instead of a crowd with tables, we were the only ones there. We stood together by the water and he asked :) The rain even head off for the time we were off ship - later it started raining again.
As soon as we got back on the ship, we met two friends in Reception and within a couple hours, many people knew. In the next 24 hours, I would say at least half the ship knew :) On Thursday, our managing director, Ken Berry talked at the community meeting. Ken and his wife Ann have know Marcel and I since England, so I did not mind when he announced it to the crew. I especially liked the way he did it - whenever he talks, he has a time where he says the best rumor he has heard that month and then also has a question and answer time. Well, Marcel and I were the rumor of the month this month :)
We first met within a day of my coming to the Africa Mercy in April of last year. He was tall, generous and someone to speak German with :) The night before he asked me if I would want to start dating we spent two hours talking together speaking German together - just about life and our thoughts about our own plans at that time for the future. The night he asked me out was about 2 weeks after we first met. He asked me if I would want to go walking on the beach which was across the road from the port in Blythe. A bit chilly, but a really nice place and a great place to talk together. A bit to my surprise, I found myself saying yes to dating someone I had just met -- and feeling excited about it.
The past year and a half has been a lot of learning for me. This is the first real relationship for both of us - I have been figuring out lots of things that I have never been faced with before. Learning about being a better commuincator, what each of us apprecites and what things are different, reading '5 Love Languages' and realizing that we have completely different languages, and learning how to trust are just some of the things. I think -- no, I know -- that living on the ship also holds its own challenges. I think most dating couples have to work to find time together, but here on the ship, I think many times the challenge is to find time apart and make sure you are working on relationships with other people as well. Also, having so little time to actually be alone changes a lot of things. But on the other hand, a year and a half dating on the ship is like 5 years of knowing someone in 'the real world.' It has forced me to face issues that I may have been able to ignore or push to the side in any other place but here you need to talk about or it just becomes bigger. Dating and living on the ship is not for everyone, but I have heard others say that God gives grace to those he wants here - and I believe it. He gives the desire and ability to those he wants here - and even has them grow and change :)
Anyhow, to the engagement -- I did know he was going to ask, he had actually asked a 'pre-proposal' question a few weeks ago to see what I thought about getting married as soon as January. I had told him I did not want to wait very long after getting engaged, and he took me seriously :) We had some logistical things to work out with things here on the ship and getting a ring (not so easy in Liberia) and such, but everything fell into place without any problems. I did have an idea what the ring would look like because he asked me what I thought before he ordered it - which I actually liked. I do not wear rings and jewerly, so if I am going to wear something for the rest of my life, I want to like it. I dropped a hint at one point that I thought a beach would be a nice place to ask - sort-of bringing everything full circle from when he asked me out for the first time in England. On Tuesday, he invited me out to dinner and we ended up at a restuarant called Golden Beach. They have an open, covered part of the restuarant and also tables out on the beach. With a little luck, it actually had stopped raining for the first time in about a week, but when we got there, there were no tables out on the beach part because it is rainy season. At first it seemed that it would not be as romantic as hoped, but we noticed that the waiter was letting some people out to look around, so after we had eaten, Marcel asked if it would be okay to go out. We were able to go out and it was actually nice because instead of a crowd with tables, we were the only ones there. We stood together by the water and he asked :) The rain even head off for the time we were off ship - later it started raining again.
As soon as we got back on the ship, we met two friends in Reception and within a couple hours, many people knew. In the next 24 hours, I would say at least half the ship knew :) On Thursday, our managing director, Ken Berry talked at the community meeting. Ken and his wife Ann have know Marcel and I since England, so I did not mind when he announced it to the crew. I especially liked the way he did it - whenever he talks, he has a time where he says the best rumor he has heard that month and then also has a question and answer time. Well, Marcel and I were the rumor of the month this month :)
4 comments:
Oh Elizabeth! I am so happy for you both. I agree that it is the right time and as your longest running roommate (I still miss you) I agree with everything! The accelerated ship life petri dish is hard but you two with God look like you have survived the first 1.5 years. I pray that the next ? years will be even more successful!
I know you will be busy but try to keep us all posted (if you can't keep everyone posted they will all understand that you have to keep ME posted!). That's awesome that you were the rumor of the month!
Congrats girl!!
HEY hey HEY congratulations Elizabeth! You guys look so happy, and this is obviously God's will! I loved reading the Five Love Languages and analyzing my husband and me. :) I read it on our honeymoon, in fact. Love it! Love your ring too!
-Gretchen (Schnee) Snyder
Congrats! Sorry we missed you last summer hope to see you soon.
Bing and Karen
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