I am a firm believer in the romantic maxim, put out most recently by the character of "The Drover" in the movie Australia, that we should all live life in such a way that we have amazing stories which, in the end, come together to form an epic tale worth reading over and over again by thousands of generations to come. That being said, when I thought about where and when I would ask Jennie to marry me, I wanted to think of something special, something unique, something that really spoke to Jennie's story as well as my own….something that would mark the beginning of our story together. I never had a moment of epiphany, but at some random point on some random day, I thought of something grand.
After Jennie and I decided to postpone the wedding in 2006, Jennie's adventurous heart, which had been geared up for and excited about the journey of marriage, needed something to do over the summer. So, Jennie and her soul took flight to a far away land where she could do the thing she loves most (caring for orphans and poor) with people she absolutely adores - Hispanics! She traveled to Bolivia. Not only did she travel that summer to Bolivia but she had already been there twice before…Since then she has bought several books on the history of Bolivia and its present political state as well as sends me articles regularly on the happenings of the landlocked South American country infamous for having two capital cities. As I thought about engagement, my mind went to the grandiose first as it often does with its absurd delusions of grandeur: wouldn't it be awesome if we could get engaged in Bolivia?
This idea was exciting to me because, not only did it speak to the deepest desires of Jennie's heart but it resonated with me as a lover of all things Latino - I am a Hall of Fame retiree of Harrisonburg Hispanic League soccer where I played for the best team in the league named after the best restaurant in the world, El Charro, and have a life goal of learning to speak the native tongue of the southern countries of the western hemisphere. So, I began looking. First, I looked at plane tickets to Bolivia but, as I was mired down in the economic impracticality of purchasing round trip flights to a geographically distant place and the practical impossibility of actually surprising Jennie with the engagement, my search turned elsewhere. I thought of the idea of getting engaged in Bolivia not literally but as a figurative idea. I found out that there were, respectively, two "Bolivias" in the eastern time zone of the US: Bolivia, NC and Bolivia, NY but that both were relatively far and, again, I would have no context of a surprise engagement attack if I hauled Jennie on some random 6 hour trip to some off-the-wall small city in rural North Carolina. But, I did not stop squeezing my creative juices.
I don't exactly remember how or when, but, at some point (and maybe even at the suggestion of someone), I had the brilliant plan in place. Oh, it was good! I had thought of a way to get literally get engaged in Bolivia while, at the same time, not spending exuberant amounts of time and money to do so. Are you ready for the genius? Drum roll please..........I decided to ask Jennie to marry me on the soil out front of the Bolivian embassy in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. as it would legally be in Bolivia but close enough for a surprise. Again, genius Jon!
With the help of some close friends, I set up a surprise to occur on Sunday, February 8th, 2009. On that beautiful afternoon (which was an anomaly for winter - 70 degrees, sunny, and gorgeous), we met our good friends, Jon and Anne Marie Vaughan, in D.C. under the pretense of an afternoon catch-up visit. The couple provided the guise for our change of plans. They recently went to Africa on a mission trip and, when we arrived in D.C. they had just attended a meeting about their trip. They told us that it was urgent that they go to the Ethiopian embassy to get their visa paperwork finalized, so we headed to the embassies.
We parked at some point before embassy row and walked to “Bolivia” - me somehow hiding the big box that contained Jennie’s engagement ring. As we approached the Bolivian embassy, our friends walked ahead of us and left us by ourselves. With the Bolivian flag flying high above, I told Jennie that we should go up and have a look at the Bolivian embassy. We walked briskly to the flagpole, at this point both of us knowing what was about to happen, and settled under it where a friend, Rob Nation, had laid out a blanket and rose petals.
At this point, I spared the pleasantries and got right on my knee and asked the age-old question, "Will you marry me?" She said, "Yes!" and I slipped the ring on. We are getting married.
