Promise and Possibilities

Tonight I did something I haven't done in awhile. I watched a documentary. It was about Mitt Romney. A behind the scenes look at his two failed campaigns to become President of the United States.

There was no commentary or voice overs, just raw dialogue between Mitt and family. It was a penetrating look at the effort to run and the pain of loss.

I once wanted to run for office, be a politician, be a church leader, even a general authority type, but 48 years have past and I am mostly past my prime.

But life is still full of promise and possibilities, and I am so very excited for something else to look forward to, or really someone else to look forward to. If you didn't know already, I have found a soul mate and have asked her to be my eternal mate! I now pledge my allegiance and love to Shannon, my one true love. She has given life new meaning and purpose and I am thrilled beyond measure to make her my life and spend the rest of my life with her.

Perhaps it came as no surprise when I asked her, but the way I asked her was a surprise. We had been dating for six months but I had been planning the proposal for quite some time. I innocently invited her and her two daughters to join me and my three daughters on a weekend trip to Las Vegas. Little did they know that that wasn't the real destination. After one night in Vegas at a motel, I told them we must get up early and load the car so we can move to a better hotel. But after the car was loaded I insisted that we first do some shopping in Primm. Nevada.

When we got to Primm, the Outlet Mall was closed. I acted surprised and said "let's go a little farther to the outlet malls of Barstow California."  And, as planned, the Barstow outlets are a ghost town of their former glory, so when we arrived and shopped for only short time I said "let's just go back to Primm because the Outlets will be open by now."

But when I got on the freeway, I headed the car in the opposite direction. It took only a matter of seconds for Shannon to notice and let me know I was headed the wrong way. Then, on cue, Macee said"Let's go to the beach" Shannon and Abby and Amanda were so excited for the beach, but that was only half the surprise.

I told them we needed to stop at my favorite Chinese restaurant first. I pretended to be lost and needed Shannon to find it's Fullerton California location on GPS. When we pulled in the parking lot, I distracted the group as McKenna, my oldest daughter, went in to the restaurant with specially made fortune cookies we had brought with us.

When the coast was clear we all went in and ate the wonderful Chinese food. After we were done, one of the staff brought out our chocolate dipped fortune cookies which, to their surprise, were filled with all the same fortune inside. The fortune was written in a Disney Font. It read: "Dreams Do Come True In The Happiest Place On Earth"!

Tears of excitement flowed as I handed an envelope to all six at the table. Again, with names written in Disney handwriting, we opened our individual envelopes to find passes to Disneyland and California Adventure!

Our next stop was the beach for a beautiful sunset. We could hardly sleep at the Anaheim Marriott that night because we had a very big day ahead.

The next day was a holiday and the parks were crowded, but we still had a wonderful day at both parks. Although it was January, the temperatures were in the 80's. 10 degrees warmer than usual! I was able to break away from the group long enough, in the morning, to ask for help with my proposal plan, and, just before dark, as the plan finally was able to unfold. Then around 9:00 pm we went to the World of Color light and fountain show where I had specially arranged VIP seating.

During the amazing visual animated water spectacle, there is a scene where Belle says, so tenderly, to the Beast " I love you". Immediately after, there is a lull of silence just before the big finale.

So right after Belle announced her love for the Beast, I went down on my knee, and with all 5 girls watching and cheering,  I asked Shannon to marry me! With tears of pure joy streaming down her cheeks, she said "Yes"!

The finale was everything we had hoped it would be and we left the park deeply in love and feeling like a family.

Life is full of wins and losses. I have experienced both. But I have never experienced such joy and hope as I have for the past 28 weeks, and that special night in Disneyland.

Our goal is the temple, and the date is June 13th!