…written by Rebecca.
Completely surprised. Speechless. That’s how I remember it. Totally unexpected. Didn’t have any clue. No one gave any hints! Or, at least, I didn’t pick up on any if they did.
We were in South Africa for the month of September! I had a YFC conference to attend there and we went early and stayed late to visit Keith’s family… meeting them for the first time! And my parents came for most of the time, as well. We spent a week and a half in Cape Town before the YFC conference and then went to Kruger National Park for a “safari” for 5 days after the conference.
We’d been in Africa for about 3 weeks visiting family, sightseeing and attending the conference. With less than a week left, we took a day off from game viewing in Kruger and stayed at camp. While my parents were napping, Keith and I were lounging by the pool and talking about the trip; how it was going by so quickly, how it’s been awesome for both families to get to know each other. I mentioned that he and I didn’t have a “date” until my first night in England almost 4 weeks ago and that I missed him. Quite causally, he says, “Lets go out to dinner tomorrow night. I’m sure your parents won’t mind.” We didn’t really say more… it was just that. Casual. And he made it sound like it was my idea.
Fast forward to the next day. It was HOT. We drove around Kruger all day discovering animals I’ve only ever seen on T.V. We didn’t talk about dinner, I thought Keith forgot! At the gate of the park, my parents bought meat to grill, so I thought that’s what we were doing for dinner. (Little did I know that they already knew the plans!) I didn’t want to say anything about dinner, because I knew how tired Keith was and didn’t want to make him feel badly. So back at camp, I went into my hut to settle in. Keith came to ask if I still wanted to go to dinner… and I tried to get out of it because I thought he was too tired and wanted him to rest! But he convinced me to go… still making me think this was all my idea from the previous day! 😉
On the way to dinner, he was quiet. I thought he was exhausted and even asked to turn around and go back! We got to the restaurant recommended by our host at the camp and it was amazing! It is called The Deck and is just that… an outdoor covered deck overlooking Kruger Park. We heard all the night sounds of different animals and even had a few visitors close enough to the fence to see!
Keith is always really sweet and romantic; so when he ordered red wine on a REALLY hot night just because he knows I like red wine much better than white, I didn’t think twice about it. After appetizers, Keith asked the lady sitting at the table next to us to take our photo… nothing new. We’re always doing that. He speaks to her in Africans, and I think he’s explaining how to work the camera. But he’s really telling her to keep taking photos because he’s about to propose. He brings the camera back to me and I think he’s going to show me the photo and ask what settings to change. But the photo on the back of the camera is of a diamond ring. I’m so confused. I JUST saw him format (erase) that card. Where did that photo come from? I don’t remember Keith giving the camera back to the lady or getting something out of his back-pack. All I remember is he’s down on one knee asking me to marry him. I’m speechless. I’m saying “yes” in my head, but can’t talk. But I’m afraid he’ll think I’m thinking about it, so I kiss him. (Hope he took that as a yes!) Still speechless, I just kept staring at the ring. It took me a few minutes to find my voice… to finally say yes! (I really had NO clue he was going to do this! I expected it around Christmas!) We finished dinner with me continuing to check my hand every few minutes and then went back to camp to wake up my parents to have a glass of warm red wine. 🙂