July 24, 2010 -

4:30am -
Woke Maria up from sleep.
Me: “Wake up!”
Maria: “Why? What time is it?”
Me: “It’s 4:30am. We’re going to go climb a mountain today! It’s our last weekend to do this! Let’s go!”
Maria (whine-y): “Ehhhh, but I don’t want to climb a mountain”
Me: “Come on! It’ll be fun! Let’s go”
Somehow I was able to convince her to wake up and go. It was her day to sleep in (opps).

5:30am -
Left Vail to head toward Mt. Elbert trail head. Maria slept during the car ride.

6:50am -
Arrived at trail head. Parking lot packed full with cars.

7:15am -
After getting our gears together, off we go on our hike!

sometime after -
During the climb up, Maria was very crabby and teared up a few times because she really had no motivation to climb. Constant prayers to God to hold off the rain until after proposal, prayers for Maria to have energy, prayers for words to speak. Constant encouragement “You’re doing great babe!”

11:50am -
Arrived at summit. (According to the forecast, it was suppose to be T-Storm by now)
Maria is in tears again, she wish she had more energy to be excited. She feels like she should be excited and feel accomplished, but she just doesn’t have the energy for that. I comforted her a bit then told her I’ll go scout out a place for us to take some pictures. I saw a woman who was using her iPhone to take pictures. I approached her and told her my plan. I told her pretend to take photos of us, but in reality she would have it on video recording mode the whole time.

Sometime after 12:00pm -
Convinced Maria to come look around.
Me: “Maria, come look around, I’m sure you’ll be excited about all of this soon! The view is gonna be great! ”
Walked around a bit, then a “random” woman approached us.
Random woman: “You guys want your pictures taken?”
Me: “Sure. Do you know how to use an iPhone?”
Random woman: “Yea, I got one.”
I handed her Maria’s iPhone and we “posed” for a few pictures…
Me: “Maria, you should turn around and look out into the mountains and put your hands out, it’ll be a cool picture!”
So she did. After she turned around, I took the ring out of my pocket and called out her name.
Me: “Maria, do you trust me to lead you and would you allow me the privilege to care for you the rest of your life?”
Maria teared up, cried, more tears, finally she says yes.

We stayed at the summit and had lunch. An hour or so later, we started hiking down.

We got down the mountain at ~3pm. God was gracious to us and kept the rain and thunderstorm away throughout our hike.

I am engaged! I have a fiance! Wow!

Highlights from our road trip:
-Great authentic Mexican food in Sterling, Colorado–Tortilla soup, Green Chile Pork & tasty, creamy re-fried beans, and spicy, fresh salsa
-Watching the changing landscapes from Wisconsin, to Iowa (rolling hills, farmlands, and massive wind turbines), to Nebraska (mostly flat plains with some signs of desert in the West), to Colorado (desert & [...]

This past two months Maria has been going back and forth between the two decision. What I thought was her final decision turns out to not be her final decision. She has decided to stay in Madison next year and continue to work on our relationship.
It’s been really cool to see how God had [...]

She has decided to go on the world race in October. It’s been really hard for me the past two months since Maria had been accepted to the World Race. It was hard because I know I should be supportive and be jolly and rejoice for her, but I can’t help to imagine what my [...]

This past semester, I feel that God have been slowly unleashing and bringing attention to the creative/artistic side of me. In the morning session, Tim Mackie gave a talk on the topic of “tension”, and at the end of the talk, he had us reflect on the following.

What are the places if tension in your [...]

So I got the job at MIS, and I’ve been working there for 2 weeks now. I’m loving it! God definitely has a way of doing things. Even though I had to go through a period of trials, patience testing, and pain, God was teaching me couple of lessons. First of, He had taught me [...]

First of all, thanks to all who have been praying for me regarding the situation. I just wanted to give you all a quick update in that since a lot have happened in the week.
I got the news last Thursday that I had to move out by last Sunday. Which I think it’s a [...]

Happy new year! I know… I am about a month late on that. I wanted to update people on my life. A lot has happened since I last updated. And right now, to be honest, I am a bit overwhelmed by a lot of things. If you do not have time to read this [...]

It has been a while since I last updated my site. I’ve just returned from another adventure, this time I was in a land far east in Asia, in a country where the government tells it’s citizen what’s best for them, a country filled with people ready for a change, a country desperately in need [...]

I am finally back in Wisconsin, and boy has it been a meaningful summer. I signed up for Summer Project, not knowing what to expect, except for God to completely change my life forever, and give me a new perspective on life; and I definitely got what I asked for. This summer has challenged me [...]