The Ring
Well ... my faithful readers want to know. I've had personal requests that this be posted. And really, thanks be to blogs. It saves me the trouble of having to tell the story a million times. Yesterday morning Curtis, our worship arts pastor, called me and asked me to arrive 20 or so minutes early for rehearsal last night as I'm playing on Sunday. When I get to the church at 6:40 it's lit, but there's no one there. I carry my violin to the front of the sanctuary and all of a sudden I hear All I Need by Sara Groves playing on the loud speakers. I turn around. JJ's standing in the balcony/tech booth. I call out, "What are you doing here?" He motions for me to come upstairs. I walk about 3 steps ... and then take off at a run. I meet him as he's coming down the stairs. He's got a box in his hand. He goes down on one knee. "Will you marry me, Angela Wong?" Before he gets the "Wong" all the way out, I've already told him yes and wrapped my arms around him. I'm crying. And miracle of all miracles, so is he. He takes me back upstairs to the tech booth ... which is where we became friends back in February - over the sound board ... and shows me how he set everything up. 1 Corinthians 13 is on the projection screens. The song is playing on the speakers. And there are tears running down both of our faces. And then he says, "Oh, and Curtis and Ed are already here. I made them go in the prayer chapel." So we go and let them out of confinement. Afterward we went to Moe's. Because that's what we do. We go to Moe's. We went back to his house for awhile afterward and when we got inside he got back down on his knees. I had no clue what he was doing. And he told me that I'm the one he's been looking for all of his life, that I make him happier than anyone he's ever known, and that he can't wait to marry me. We both did a good job fighting back tears at that juncture. JJ Cooper completes me. He lifts me up, he makes me smile, he can touch places in my heart I didn't know were there. He's my best friend. He's the best thing that ever happened to me. And best of all, God gave us into each other's keeping forever. He's on a plane all day today, headed out to Anaheim, CA for the baseball winter meetings. But on Monday he comes home to me. For the rest of our lives, he'll come home to me.