Tiffini Johnson and Joe Dougherty
February 03, 2007 |
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Joe and I are getting married! We are very excited about that, too! He and I have a lot of differences. He's a very laid back, type B personality while I tend to be more of a perpetually overscheduled, closer to type A personality type. Joe was born and grew up in Iowa; I was born and eventually settled in Tennessee. Joe enjoys movies and games: I try to avoid television completely and would rather ride a horse than play a game. Joe is an optimist; I'm a realist. There are distinct differences - but there are also similiaries between us. For one, we both love nature and spending time outside, we both love the arts and reading, we both enjoy philosophy and psychology, we're both extremely even-tempered and slow to anger but, most importantly, we both love each other and adore our beautiful daughter Breathe.
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We met online, actually. Despite the fact that I do tend to be on the go a lot, and am socially adaptable, I am also leery of crowds and the social scene. I didn't really want to date at the time, but eventually decided to post a profile. Joe did want to date but was having trouble meeting the kind of woman he wanted in person so he also posted a profile. He read mine and wrote me. Unfortunately, because I didn't really want to date at the time, I ignored Joe's first attempt at contacting me. Indeed, he had to email me three times before I finally responded. I am very glad, in retrospect, though that instinct made me write back!
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The proposal was perfect! For our anniversary in September, I'd written a book about us: from shortly before we met up until that point. The book was a recollection of our history from my memory. At the end of each chapter, I'd left a couple of pages blank and, when I gave it to him, informed him that they were blank so that he could fill in his memories, thoughts and recollections at the end of each chapter. This was never done and I'd about reached the conclusion he wasn't going to do it. Little did I know.
In the winter, Joe suggested that he and I take Breathe to Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg is normally a yearly tradition for me. With the exception of the year after Breathe was born, I tried to go and rent a cabin up there yearly. So, of course, I loved the idea. We decided to go for Valentine's Day. We left the day before and arrived on Monday. That day, we spent playing with Breathe in the snow (there was 8 inches of it!). The next day, a Tuesday, was Valentine's Day and Joe asked me if it was all right if we just gave Breathe her gifts during the day and saved exchanging our gifts to each other after she was asleep. I agreed and that's what we did.
Once Breathe was asleep, I came downstairs and Joe had moved the couch back. I sat down and he gave me a small present: a wrapped CD of Martina McBride's "Valentine." When I opened it, he said, "I thought we could start the night with a dance."
If he'd asked me after that dance, it would have been perfect. Dancing is special between us and probably always will be. So I loved this. After the dance - which he'd asked if he could videotape - I had him find and pop some balloons. Throughout the day, I'd had him find little quotes that I'd hidden around the house the night before. Inside the balloons were the final five quotes of the day. Once he'd done that, I asked him if he wanted to go ahead and exchange gifts. He looked at me for a long time and seemed to think hard about it before he smiled and said, "Okay, let's do gifts."
He asked me if he could open his gift first and I agreed. Once he received his TiVo (which he seemed to really enjoy), he gave me my gift: a wrapped box that looked like he'd gotten me an outfit or something. Was I wrong. Inside the box was the completed version of "Paved with Love" - the book I'd given him for our anniversary. He'd written his own book, instead of just using the blank pages I'd included in mine. Touched, I hugged him and said that was wonderful. Then he said, "You'll need to read chapter nineteen, the last chapter, and the epilogue tonight."
"Okay," I said. He turned the book to the right page for me and then left the room.
I finished reading the book and called out that I was finished. He came around the corner holding a rose, got down on one knee (which, frankly, I *never* expected him to do!) and asked me to marry him --- in French! Actually, what he said was, "I love you. Will you marry me?" in French. Boy, was I impressed! To my knowledge, Joe doesn't know a word of French - but he knew that I do and not only do I understand enough French to get by, but I love the language so that final touch was a very thoughtful one.
I hugged him and said, "yes -- oui!"
It was the perfect proposal not only for me but, I think, for us because it wasn't just the proposal - now we have the completed first half of our story to one day show Breathe. We also have our proposal on tape for her to watch and enjoy one day! I have no doubt that the rest of our lives will be as exciting and as beautiful as the proposal itself was.
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