I first of all want to inform you all that I was not totally surprised this event was going to take place, I knew that one day it would happen since the first day I ever met Jordan. I just didn't know when and how :) After spending 3 months apart for the summer we had the chance to spend a
week in the mountains together doing the thing
we both love so much, CAMPING! Grandma and Grandpa Hash, Josh, Jordan's mom, Casey, Corbin and Chad all had a blast camping out
in the Blueridge Mountains in Gracin Highlands Park in Virginia.
It was beautiful and such a relaxing time to sit by a campfire, cook
some pizza pudgy pies, and enjoy some of Grams campin' food. All of us took a bike trip down the famous Virginia Creeper Trail.
I believe it was almost 20 miles but it seemed effortless because of the gradual decline throughout the whole trip. Jordan is convinced that if you pedaled hard in the beginning, you could make it to Damascus (our ending location) without pedaling again. We also spent alot of our time hiking the trails and picking blueberries with Grandpa. Here are some pictures of our hikes to the Twin Pinnacles and up to some sweet waterfalls. However, the pictures do not give the beauty
we saw any justice. This place truly painted the picture of God's greatness.
At this point I was pretty sure that I was the happiest girl in the world. I mean getting
to enjoy the mountains, God's creation, and spending time getting to know the man that I love and family that I love. Whew, I thought this camping trip could not get any better. However on August 5th 2009...I truly became the happiest girl in the world. We set out on a hike which is
part of the Appalachian Trail (which we both want to hike the whole trail one day!) So we were pumped. We started out and on our first big adventure and within 5 minutes of walking over the hill we ran in to some wild cattle. Right on our path was a bull! It was neat but honestly, I was nervous. But we walked around them and headed into the woods. Other than the soggy ground from all the rain and the pesky spiders who spun their webs right in Jordan's face, it was perfect weather and such a beautiful day for a hike. After trudging trough the mud for a little bit Jordan was in the lead and stop suddenly...at first all he could see was a big black thing moving in the trees right on our path. Ha, we looked a little harder and it
was a wild pony! (Again I was a bit nervous) So Jordan politely asked him to get off our trail and he would not move. But when Jordan started yelling at him in a stern voice to get the heck off our trail he slowly moved off our trail...and that was that. We
ran into some more wild ponies and some bear tracks along the way. But we kept hiking on. I think back now and laugh knowing that through the 8 hours we were hiking Jordan had this ring in his back pack the whole time. He tells me that he was so anxious the whole time, every rock we came to, ever pretty place we were at he thought about pulling it out and getting on his knee. But I am glad that he was patient and waited. He once told me about his favorite place in the world. It is a big rock that is part of Massies Gap, along the trail that we were on. So we had about 30 minutes of hiking left and we finally stopped on this rock I had heard so much about to eat some lunch. It was perfect because the whole hike I was thanking God for my best friend and how much fun we have together. I prayed like I also do that we get to have many adventures just like that one and get to spend the rest of our lives together. Anyway, we are sitting there talking about how beautiful it was and how good our smashed, tin-foil wrapped pb&j sandwiches are as he goes
to "grab another one" out of his bag. I had my back turned but heard him say, "hey babe, check this out". I thought that maybe he saw a bug or some kind of animal because he said it so calmly like there was something really neat that I needed to look at. I turned around saw the ring! He stared at me and I was so excited that I almost fell back...off the cliff! I was in no REAL danger but it makes for a good story. I cant even explain the feeling in my heart at this point. My best friend, the man that I have fallen so deeply in love asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. Next to being loved by God, being loved by Jordan Gardner is the best feeling ever! We made a commitment to God that day that we were going to love each other and as a couple live for Him and use our engagement/marriage/relationship to touch lives and to build his kingdom.
I am now the luckiest girl in the world.
-KRS (soon to be KRG)
