Stephanie Horn is gauche.

It’s true! After 1½ years of loving, growing, and both of us being very humbled by one another, Paul asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. I said yes, and I cried—a lot. Seriously, I don’t think he was prepared for the amount of happy tears I shed at that moment.

So now, for your reading pleasure, I’ve included the story…

Paul had told me earlier in the week to prepare for a trip to Tucson for dinner and to look at Christmas lights. Before we left Paul said he needed to make a quick coffee delivery he forgot about to a client. This client is actually a luxury resort restaurant called Kai that many restaurateurs say is the best in Arizona (and way out of our price range! Ha). We dropped off the coffee, talked with his friend Frank (the manager), and headed back to the car. Unbeknownst to me, Paul then took advantage of my lack of knowledge about standard cars to fake that the battery died by putting in the brake and not the clutch when he turned the key.

As an aside, Paul had been peppering me with texts over the previous 3 weeks about how his battery had been acting up—that clever man.

Slightly annoyed, but trusting Paul, I went with him to talk to Frank and see if anyone at the resort could “jump” the car. Frank sat us in an empty private dining room and Paul brought in Scrabble from the car to kill some time.

To finish this elaborate plan, Paul had actually pocketed some Scrabble tiles before picking me up. I don’t know how I didn’t see him cheat—divine guidance I guess, ha!—and pull tiles out of his jacket (to ensure he would go first and then also put down a word first)! He put down ‘RYME’ and said, “Hmm, that’s not how it’s spelled.” and then placed ‘MAR’ in front of it and got down on one knee. I didn’t even see that he also put the ring on the game board; I just started crying!

He put the ring on my finger and told me that he planned everything out the way he did to show that sometimes we’ll have plans that just don’t seem to be going the right way, but that in reality there’s a master plan that reveals itself, like what he and I have been experiencing with God. And then he promised to never cheat at Scrabble again!

Frank came in with champagne, revealed a camera that was recording the whole thing, and escorted us to have a ridiculously amazing dinner in their main restaurant.

Whew! Thanks for making your way through that!

Most people wondered how I could have NOT seen it coming because it was a series of strange circumstances, but to be honest I was completely sure I was going to get a proposal for Christmas. Why? Paul had given me a series of gifts to open with the third and final present the size of a ring box! I thought this proved Paul was really bad at keeping secrets with such an “obvious” gift, but it was a red herring! A way to throw me off the trail! Well, Paul, I tip my hat to you, sir.

Paul and I are now starting to plan, and really seeking God in how to glorify him and have a crazy-awesome, super fun wedding (and marriage). I’m still in shock and slightly delirious from all the excitement.