The Proposal

On Saturday, December 15, 2007 Joey and I were going out on a date. He came to pick me up at about 4:00pm. When he got to the flat, he had a dozen red roses for me.

I put the roses in some water and off we went. We drove to the nearest metro stop and took public transportation to Fisherman's Bastion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisherman It is a very pretty area with great views of the city and the river. We took a few pictures.

But since it was dark and snowing it was hard to get some good shots. It was beautiful though, the snow was small and light, blowing all around... I felt like I was in the middle of a snowglobe. From my pictures you can't see it, but there are seven towers and some walls to walk on. While we were walking around one of the towers, Joey stopped and said I have some gifts for you. (He had brought a little gift bag.) The first thing he pulls out is a basket with some stuff in it.

The first thing that he gave me was the little bear. He said I got you this little bear because of how cuddly you are. Then he pulled out a little framed picture of himself. Then he pulled out some scissors and said you can't keep these, but you'll need them. Then he told me to turn around because something wasn't ready. So I turned around and enjoyed the view of the river and the chain bridge. Then when he was ready, I turned back around and he had this little angel Christmas tree ornament for me. If you look closely, you can see a ring is hanging from the angel's neck.

He asked me if I saw what the angel had, and I said yes, my ring. :-) So then he said I have a question to ask you. And he got down on his knee and said all these sweet things to me then he asked me to be his wife. And I said yes. Then he put the ring on my finger. And we left shortly after that to make our dinner reservations.

We went to dinner at this place called Tortuga. http://www.tortuga.hu/ It was very good. We couldn't stay very long because I have been sick and I have a very difficult time sitting for any length of time. Despite me being sick, it was a very nice evening. I'm so excited!!!!! If we are able to reserve everything, we plan on being married on July 26, 2008 in California.

Since I've been dealing with an infection, going places is difficult for me. So on Friday evening I made a pot of soup and Erin (my flatmate), Joey and I played a game of Rummikub at home.

Last night, Joey and I went on a double date with my Hungarian teacher, Adri and her fiance, Tomas. Adri has been my teacher since the end of March, and I have really enjoyed getting to know her. We went to dinner at a small Italian restaurant inside a mall, then we went to the Gospel Choir Concert that our church puts on. It was a great evening. I hope we are able to do this again in the future.

I need to do some updating... but haven't had the time lately. Just wanted to get this out there... please pray for Joey. He is having surgery on his knee on Tuesday, November 13. He hurt it a few weeks ago while twisting and standing up. The surgery is pretty routine, but as with anything I think it's important to be covered in prayer when going under the knife.

Fall Break

In Budapest, schools are on their Fall Break during the week that contains November 1. Having a week off of school, Joey and I decided to do a little touristing around Hungary.

On October 30, we went to a town called Eger. It was beautiful; we walked around, had lunch, took pictures, did a little shopping.

On November 1, we went to Tihany. Tihany is a penninsula into Lake Balaton. We walked around there and looked out over the lake. We had gulyas soup for lunch at a cute little restaurant.

Joey has some colleagues who live in Debrecen, a city on the eastern part of Hungary. So on November 2 we drove out there and stayed overnight with them. That was very nice as well.

I would say that my favorite part of all the trips we went on was the trees. With the weather changing, the leaves are changing colors. It was so beautiful.

Reunion

My flight back to Hungary was on August 27. While in California, I had a couple friends advise me to look very nice when I got off the plane. I ended up buying a new dress at Target. I decided not to wear the dress on the plane so that I would be more comfortable. I thought I would change while waiting for my next flight in Ireland, but it was too cold. (I had bought a summer dress in California.)

When I got off the plane in Budapest, I went to the bathroom to change. Maybe I was a little naive, but I put on a dress and HEELS!! Then I went to get my luggage off the belt. I had two pieces of luggage weighing around 40 pounds each, plus my carry on bag and my purse. I was exhausted after traveling for 19 hours. I felt like I could barely walk being in heels and having all the luggage with me.

It was good to see Joey once I got out of the baggage claim area. At first he didn't see me. I eventually got his attention, then he helped me with the bags. I'll let him share more later about his perspective.

Summer Apart

Joey and I spent our summer five thousand miles apart. I went home to California on June 22. It was great for me to visit with family and friends that I had been apart from for eight months. But I definitely missed Joey. We did keep in touch pretty frequently through e-mail, instant messaging and internet phone calls.

Our first date was on May 26, 2007. Joey picked me up at around 4:00pm. When I answered the door he had a beautiful multicolored bouquet of gerbera daisies for me. I quickly put them in water and then we went on our way.

Joey drove us to Blaha Lujza Ter. From there we took public transportation to the Children's Railroad located in the hills of Budapest. We then took the train to Janos Hegy (the highest point in Budapest) and walked up the mountain to the Erzsebet Tower. On our way up, we took a break. Joey packed for us some sweets, fruit and drinks. He also brought a little plant so we would have flowers for our 'table'. It was very sweet.

After looking at the view and taking some photos, we walked back down the mountain to another area where we could catch a bus back into the city. We then had dinner at a small Italian restaurant in Liszt Ferenc Ter.

It was a very nice evening and great first date!!

Our story...
(her point of view)

Joey and I met in February of 2007 in Budapest. His friend Aaron (from Alaska) wanted to meet my flatmate Erin also from Alaska. We happened to be with each of them. After church, we all went out to lunch together with a few others. Ironically (or not)... we went to Subway. Joey and I didn't talk much that afternoon. But we did continue to see each other at church occassionally.

Within the next couple of months, I was trying to get a group of people to go to lunch together. Well Joey wanted to come too. But he didn't know all the people I was talking to, so he and a friend went on ahead to the restaurant he thought we were going to. Once the rest of us left the church, we ended up going to a different restaurant. I felt bad that he went to a different restaurant, but didn't have a way of letting him know.

Two weeks later, I apologized to Joey about that mix up and told him that we need to get his phone number. So a bunch of people started exchanging numbers. I got distracted by someone and didn't give Joey mine. He ended up asking me for it and then he called me so that I could store his number in my phone.

That same day, we ended up going out to lunch with a group of about twenty after church. There was a young American man traveling through town and he had not had one of my favorite Hungarian dishes, palacsinta (to Americans that would be crepes). So after lunch, I suggested we go to a palacsinta kitchen for dessert. We (Marcus, Erin, Todd, Joey and I) went to Granny's Palacsinta House. I had a really good time, and I got to know Joey a little more.

Then the next day, being a holiday, we had off of school. One of our friends wanted to get together, so Erin and I opened up our home for dinner. We had the same 3 people over for dinner. It was fun... I actually still have some pictures and video from conversations we had that evening.

Well after those two days in a row with Joey, I thought this guy is really nice, I want to get to know him better. From my perspective, he is Christian, he is living in Hungary indefinitely, he is studying the language. I was thinking I'll probably be in Hungary for at least two more years so he would be a really good friend to have. I was thinking nothing romantically, but knew that I wanted to be his friend.

That was on Monday; on Thursday when I was on my way home from my language class, I got a phone call from Joey. I wasn't able to talk to him at the time, but he did say that he would call me a little later when I got home. I had about 40 minutes to think about why he was calling me and pray about it.

When he did talk to me, he asked how I was doing, small talk. Then he said well I did call for a reason, then this is what I can remember:
Joey: Would you like to go out to dinner sometime and possibly something else depending on weather?
Heather: That sounds really fun, I would really like to, but let me pray about it.
Joey: Okay that's fine. Take all the time you need and don't worry if you don't get back to me for a couple weeks, it won't be awkward at church or anything.
Heather: Oh, I'll pray about it for a couple days and let you know my answer by Sunday. I don't want to leave you hanging.
Joey: Okay :)) thanks!

Then I called him back on Saturday and said that I would like to go out sometime. So we looked at our calendars and the next time that was available was three weeks later. I could have freed up some time for him, but since I didn't know him that well, I thought it would be okay to wait a little. That gave us plenty of time to talk and get to know each other a little more before our first date.

If you ask us, we'd say we've been dating since May. He first asked me to go out with him on May 3. Our first date was on May 26. But really in those three weeks, we were getting to know each other and praying about the direction the Lord would want this relationship to go in...