“Yes, a Thousand Times Yes!!”
There is no one more romantic than God. A few months ago, our Editor Dan wanted to propose to his girlfriend Rachel (the founder of WitnessHK). He didn’t know how he would do it, but he prayed that the Creator of all romance would give him ideas. God did even better - He made it perfect.
In March, Rachel visited Dan in LA for the second time. God had just blessed Dan with a new job, so he had a week off before the new job was going to start.
As far as Rachel knew, the plan was just to drive up to San Francisco from LA to meet Dan’s family.
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Rachel had met Dan’s parents before when they were vacationing in Hong Kong, but this was to be Rachel’s first time meeting Dan’s grandma, sister, brother in law, and two cute nieces Maia and Claire. Everyone loved Rachel. What Rachel didn’t know was that Dan and his sister Pei Pei had already been working with a jeweler on setting the perfect engagement ring. As Rachel was visiting Pei Pei’s house during the trip, Pei Pei had Maia and Claire give Rachel a tour, and while she was distracted, Dan snuck out with the beautiful engagement ring.
On the way back down to LA, Dan and Rachel stopped at many beautiful places along the California Coast: Santa Cruz, Monterey, and eventually ended up in beautiful Carmel by the sea. It was late afternoon and the sun was already starting to go down when they decided to take an impromptu walk down to the beach. It was a perfect, blessed moment.
The sun was setting over the soft white sandy beach cove, and Dan professed his love to Rachel. Dan reached into his pocket, and Rachel thought “Oh my God, this is the moment,” her head rushing. But instead of pulling out a ring box, Dan pulled out his camera to take some pictures. Rachel and Dan can laugh about this moment now, but she wasn’t exactly enthused at the time! It was the perfect moment, she thought. What does that mean?
Rachel and Dan eventually made it back to LA late that night. The next morning, Dan had planned with two LA friends, Ray and CL, to go to Universal Studios together in a group. Rachel had mentioned wanting to go to Universal Studios, but what she didn’t know was that Dan had already orchestrated a whole elaborate plan.
The plan was that halfway through the day, Dan would pretend that he got called into work, Ray and CL would stay with Rachel while Dan went back to the new house and prepared everything for the proposal. But as the day went on, Dan started to get nervous. He thought, “Would Rachel believe me? I’m a terrible liar.” But he just kept praying throughout the day, “God let this day be perfect, let this day be perfect for Rachel to remember forever.”
Eventually it was almost 2:00 in the afternoon. It was now or never, so Dan went to the bathroom with Ray and told him it was time. Coming out of the bathroom, Dan stood far off away from the rest of the group and pretended to make a long call. When he rejoined the group, he told Rachel that he had gotten called in for last minute paperwork that needed to be done or he wouldn’t be able to start his job on Monday. Amazingly, Rachel believed him, despite the fact that Dan’s voice was shaking. Ray and CL stepped in to help make it more believable.
So Dan quickly ran back to the car and drove to the downtown flower market where he bought two huge boxes of flower petals. Going back to the house, he created a path through the house with flower petals leading the way. Rachel had always loved treasure hunts with clues, so Dan made treasure hunt clues attached to pictures and memories at each stop along the way. Some stops even had presents relating to specific things they had talked about before. After setting up, Dan went outside in the backyard to wait, pray and sweat it out. The longest hour of his life.
When Rachel got home, she knew something was up because Ray and CL kept hugging her as she left the car. At the front gate, she saw the first clue, and started to take it all in. It was finally happening, she thought. She decided to take it slow and take her time walking from station to station. Dan later revealed to her that if felt like an eternity waiting for her.
Each stop held a memory or inside joke, along with a picture. The flower petals led the way. Rachel and Dan’s songs were playing in the house, a whole playlist of songs from the relationship (some of which Dan had to be really sly about getting the song names from Rachel). Eventually the clues led Rachel up the petal-covered staircase. As she entered the bedroom, there was a walkie-talkie sitting on the bed, with a post it note that read “Use Me.”
Dan chose a post-it note on purpose, because Rachel and Dan had a tradition of leaving hidden post-it notes around each other’s apartments every time they left one another, so the other would be surprised and loved at finding the notes unexpectedly thereafter.
The walkie-talkie was also symbolic because Dan and Rachel had an inside joke about walkie-talkies. After fumbling with it and not being able to make it work for a few minutes (classic Rachel), she eventually got Dan on the line.
“Come out to the Juliet balcony,” he said.
Opening the blinds, she saw for the first time that the entire Juliet balcony was lighted up with beautiful string lights. She stepped out on the balcony and saw Dan below, dressed in his best suit standing there and looking up at her. The entire backyard and deck were covered in rose petals and candles.
Dan was holding pieces of paper with one word at a time on them. As he turned each page, it spelled out the words to their favorite song “Home” - home is whenever I’m with you. Beckoning her to come down, Rachel paused for a moment to take it all in. As she was walking down the stairs all she could think was “Did Dan ask God yet? Did Dan ask God about this?”
When Rachel came outside, Dan looked at her, and before she could ask what was on her mind, Dan said, “As I was praying through how I’d propose to you, God gave me all of these ideas, every last one of them. Each night, I’d pray and he’d give me more. But what He showed me was that right before I propose to you, I should tell you the confirmation I got from Him that you were the one, from way back before we had even started dating. I prayed and He gave me the clearest sign…[Rachel and Dan’s ears only, sorry!]… I never told you before, but I thought that you should know.”
Rachel started crying. It was exactly what she was thinking the whole time, and before she could speak, the Holy Spirit had told Dan exactly what to say to her. She was finally ready.
Dan got down on one knee and proposed, looking her in the eyes.
Tears in her eyes, Rachel threw her arms around Dan’s neck. “Yes, a thousand times yes!”
