Surprise!

Thanksgiving. The title of the holiday pretty much sums up the focus of the day. This Thanksgiving I have much to be thankful for as God shows me just how blessed I am. If you know me, then you know that my other half resides in Minnesota with a guy named Adam. Adam is my fiancé  and love of my life. Due to Concordia’s DCE program Adam and I have spent the past 16 months apart. Adam spent his DCE internship in Marquette, Michigan last year and I am now serving out my internship in Alaska, resulting in long distance for long periods of time.

We get the occasional breaks where we are able to see each other in person; spring break, weekend before school starts, the week when school was out before I left for internship, but for the most part we are apart however there are wonderful technologies such as Skype which we use to converse face to face.

This year for Thanksgiving Adam made a surprise visit to Alaska. The story goes like this….

I was sitting in my room at 9:30pm (Alaska Time) when Adam calls me on skype. This is normal as we make evening skype calls to say our evening prayers before going to bed.

“What are you doing?” Adam asked.

“I was just waiting for you” I replied.

“Have you checked facebook?” he asked

“No.”

“Well you should check my facebook” he urged

I then went to his facebook page to which it said that Adam had checked in at Ted Stevens International airport (Anchorage Airport)

“WHAT?! No!” I said in disbelief

“Can you come pick me up?” He asked

At that point I lost it. I started bawling tears of joy. “Of course, of course, I’ll be right there”

What Adam put on facebook

I ran upstairs to tell Chuck and Terri, my host parents. “Adam’s in Alaska! Adam’s in ALASKA! He’s here!” I shouted

Terri played dumb and then told me that she knew he was coming all along. We hugged with tears still streaming from my face.

The drive to the airport took forever. The roads were not the best, and I had to make a conscious effort not to speed. 45 minutes later I arrived at the airport and Adam was there with flowers to greet me. I still could not believe that he had kept it secret. Not only did he have my host parents in on it but also Pastor Steve as Adam told me that he had to check in at the Heinsen Hotel (Pastor Steve Heinsen’s house we call the “Heinsen Hotel”).

I couldn’t believe that he had pulled it off. This surprise doubles as our anniversary for being together is November 29^th. We always joke about who will have the better anniversary gift, needless to say this year he did.