Ethan's Engagement

In genealogy, there are primary sources and secondary sources.  Primary sources are events that are recorded when they happen by people who were directly involved (birth certificates, baptisms), and secondary sources are events that are recorded after the event, and not necessarily by someone who witnessed the event (obituaries, Bible records).

As much as I would love for this post to be written by a primary source (aka Ethan), I don't think that's going to happen.  Instead, you will get my version of his love story with Rebecca, pieced together from different things he has told me.

Last December, a friend of mine, Emily Rayburn, came up to Ethan at church and told him that he wanted to set him up with her youngest sister, Rebecca.  The Schriever family is from Warfordsburg, PA where Emily and Rebecca's dad is a dairy farmer.

Ethan was all for it.  He called up Rebecca, and they went out on a triple date with some of Johannah's friends from church.  I believe it was Applebee's, followed by The Hobbit.  I think at the time that Johannah might have been more smitten with Rebecca than anyone else--she thought she was just darling, especially in her purple coat and cute boots.

Rebecca flew back to BYU, and the entire time Ethan and I were driving across country to BYU, he was texting Rebecca.  He would read me some of her texts, and they were witty, clever and just downright hilarious.  In my mind, I knew that this girl was different from the other girls Ethan had dated (thank goodness).  I must admit, not having seen a picture of Rebecca, I imagined her as a studious person--not especially attractive, but making up for that with intelligence.

For the next two months, Ethan was dating a couple of girls, but he always came back to Rebecca.  He would call me up after the dates, telling me what a fantastic time he had with her.  As he got to know her better, he discovered that she was much smarter than she let on.

When I asked him what three things he most admired about her (this was probably in March), he told me:

1.  She's a "no drama" kind of girl.  Coming out of some other relationships, he was especially grateful for this characteristic.

2.  She's smart.  Coming from Ethan, that is a HIGH compliment.  He doesn't find too many people his age at BYU that he would consider "smart". She just graduated in business or finance, or something else (remember, this IS a secondary source), and she's starting a Master's program in the fall in business administration.

3.  For this one, he made some comment that seemed to equate with #1, so I made him choose a different thing.  His answer?  She's beautiful.

Seriously?  Intelligence and beauty?  I thought it was too good to be true.  I basically had to offer my first born child to Ethan (wait...that doesn't work) to get him to send me a picture of the two of them.

I know their hair color is identical, but are they wearing the same sweaters too?!

"Beautiful" doesn't even BEGIN to describe her.  I joked with Ethan that he was definitely dating "up" in the looks department!

I'll never forget one hilarious comment he made to me.  He said that he knew what his eyes looked like as they glazed over when she started talking finance, because he could see the same look in her eyes when he tried to talk to her about international politics  :-)

They spent conference weekend together, and I'm not sure they were apart another day after that.

At the Conference Center.

You know the Kennedy obsession with height?
Of course, my 6'4" son is marrying a girl who is like 5' 4"...or 5' 2".  I don't really know :-)

Too, I'll never forget the phone call when he said to me, "I think I'm in love with this girl, Mama.  I think I want to marry her."

John and I didn't question his choice.  Even though we haven't met her, we totally trust Ethan that he has chosen the very best woman, and we are already completely in love with her.  However, I was extremely happy when one of my closest friends, Nancy Carlson, happened to run into them on National Doughnut Day at Krispy Kreme in Orem (they were playing "Head's Up" in the line).  Nancy and Dave took them out to lunch a few days later, and Nancy called me immediately to tell me that I'm going to absolutely adore Rebecca.  Dave had some choice words too about Rebecca, but in Dave Carlson fashion, they aren't appropriate for print :-)

So, Ethan picked out a ring and wanted to make the proposal special.  He chose the theme "The Top Ten Things Ethan Loves to do with Rebecca Schriever."

Starting five days out, he would give her two envelopes a day with activities that he loved to do with her--from watching movies to going to the planetarium--and they would do them that day.  I have no doubt that she knew a proposal was coming at the end.

The one where he sent me a picture:  play boardgames.  Cutest idea ever to spell it out with Bananagram letters.

The final day?  #2 was going on walks.  Isn't it so sweet that they love to go on walks together?

Both of these were taken on a walk about two weeks before he proposed.  I was glad to see more pictures!

And although I don't know any of the details, sometime on that #2 walk, he handed her the card for #1: proposing to Rebecca.

Everyone is already asking about dates.  All I can say, being a secondary source, is that Ethan is headed to Brussels in the Fall, so it will be after that.  In fact, between now and December, they will only be together for three weeks :-(

There you go.  Don't quote me on any of this, because I can't guarantee most of its validity.  However, I'm going to be very happy over the next few months, recording everything about them and their wedding plans...as a secondary source of course.

Thanks, Hannie, for this most darling of pictures.

If this isn't the sweetest ring ever?  And BIG!  Holy smokes!
If the size of a ring is a display of love....

Arent they so cute in their button down shirts, his blue and hers pink?  I couldn't have staged that better :-)

Ethan tells me that Rebecca is pretty quiet.  I told him that she's going to need to get used to being in the spotlight a bit more, because I'm not going to be able to help showing her off!  We love her already and can't wait for her to be part of our family.