I went to back to Xi’an to visit friends for a few
days. It had been five months
since I had been there and I was really looking forward to seeing them. I had packed my schedule full with
visiting friends and was having a great time. With our work schedules David and I had decided the first
trip back to Xi’an I would go by myself, plus it just happened that David had
customers visiting the factory during the same time and would be busy working
with them.
Saturday evening Amber hosted a party for Emma and Michael
to celebrate their engagement. We
had invited all of our local friends and spent the evening eating really good
food and playing games.
Towards
the end of the evening I was getting a little emotional knowing I was going to
have to say goodbye and wasn’t sure when I was going to see some of them
again.
Karla and I left the party at nine to
get back and see our friends the Kellers.
They had just flown in that evening from the States and I wanted to
spend a little time with them before I flew out the next morning.
When I got back to Karla's house the Keller's had put an enveople on the table for me. On it was written my Chinese name (which I was confused because I was pretty sure they didn't know my Chinese name). They said the letter was for me and that I should open it.
I thought they had written a 'goodbye' letter, and was pretty frank and said, “I’ve already cried twice tonight with saying goodbye to friends…. I
really don’t want to do it again.
I’ll wait till tomorrow to read it.” Karla, Les, and the Kellers all looked at me kind of
strangely. John said, “No, I would
like for you to open it now.” When
I tried to interject that I would really like to wait till the next day, John
was laughing and said, “Stacy, just open it now.”
I was really surprised when I opened it and inside wasn’t a letter, but a photograph. It was of David and I taken a year ago in front of 大雁塔 The Big Goose Pagoda in Xi’an. At the bottom of it he had written that he wanted me to go back to the Pagoda.
I looked at Karla and said, “There is no way he is here. It’s not possible! He called me earlier today from
the store in Xiamen!” She just
said, “I don’t know… why don’t you go find out!”
I walked around the house for a few minutes in shock, trying to find my
coat only to realize I was already wearing it. I walked in the bathroom and was trying to figure out if I
should redo my makeup real quick because I had pretty much cried it all off
earlier that evening. I figured it
wasn’t worth it, and just wanted to get out the door. Karla knew I was in a state of shock and double-checked to
make sure I had money to get there and my cell phone.
I went to the backside of the pagoda and found Dave standing in the
middle of the big fountains (at this time there wasn’t any water). He gave me a big hug and said ‘hi,’ and
then started talking a lot about Chinese history. I was really confused and trying to figure out what was
going on.
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Next thing I know, he said that he loved me and asked me to marry him!!
I said, "YES!"
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| Later that evening we went back to hang out with my friends and celebrated! |
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| David had taken an afternoon flight to Xi'an and had the whole situation planned out to surprise me. Only a few of my friends knew about it, it was a wonderful surprise! |
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| He guessed on the ring size and it fits perfectly! He had the Kellers bring it over from the States! We flew back to Xiamen the next day and spent the day celebrating and making calls to our families. |
