Shock and Awww

(The Mavs game/date night with hubby was a blast! Thanks Abe, sitters, and sitter offerees. More on that later.)

My oldest bro-in-law Adam is one blessed and lucky guy! He has met the woman of his dreams and even managed to sweep her off her feet. Melinda is quite lucky, as well; Adam is a pretty neat guy. These two Torah-studying, multi-language-speaking, neice-entertaining, steady-going, zoo-visiting, Israel-touring, soon-to-be-Fort-Worth-residing (I hope!) love birds are now engaged to be married, and the Big Day is May 17th.

I was extatic about Melinda from the start, so I continually pestered Adam with an endless stream of questions about her and their relationship. (I play the role of the annoying little sister effortlessly, even w/o prior experience.) After their relationship took a turn for the serious, I began asking about the big question, the ring, etc, and Big Bro eventually made known his plans of proposing. I was more than honored one day while visiting my father-in-law when Adam asked me if I wanted to go with him to look at bicycles. Well, we began our journey and somehow ended up at a jewelry store. Livy slept on my shoulder while I watched Adam select this special ring. He chose a simple but elegant diamond solitaire and started trying to get in touch with Melinda's father to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage. Once he got in touch with him, Adam made a trip to meet him for lunch in San Angelo and received his blessing to marry his daughter. After lunch, Adam hopped on over to Midland to surprise Melinda as she was getting off work.

**Aside - When we were asking Adam about his proposal plans, he told us he would surprise her at work. I said, "Oh, Shock and Awe!"
He said, "Well, I can't afford 'Awe,' but I can 'shock' her!" We decided he was utilizing the 'Shock and Awww' technique.**

Melinda got off work and walked to her car as she would any day, only to be scared half to death by some strange man jumping out of nowhere. Shocked, she certainly was, and it took her several moments to even process that her boyfriend who lives several hours away and who she had no plans to see that week was there at her car. Once that thought started to settle in, he got down on his knee and asked her to marry him. She was so stunned that he had to ask her again to get an answer. She responded with a resounding YES!

Us Penrods are thrilled to have a new addition to the family, and we couldn't have asked for someone more perfect and wonderful for Adam.