On Sunday October 7th I asked my girlfriend to marry me.
I had been planning to ask her to marry me for a little while and the original plan was already in motion to take her to where we had our first kiss and do it there. Then the plans changed.
This weekend was Tag’s sister’s birthday and we spent almost the whole weekend with her family. Every moment I spent with her was like torture because I wanted to ask her so badly; I didn’t want to wait any longer. I almost made it through the whole weekend when she went home to study while I went to church on Sunday afternoon.
As I was thinking about how badly I wanted to be Tag’s fiance and eventually her husband, I was greeted at church with readings all about marriage. Here was the first reading, Genesis 2:18-24.
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adamno suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the ribhe had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
I felt like the Big Guy Upstairs was just telling me that I shouldn’t wait any longer and I need to ask her tonight!
I stopped at her parents’ house and asked for their blessing (while crying like a big fat baby) after church. And FYI, I’m not a crier.
In the 3 years I’ve been dating Tag I’ve cried three times: one when we broke up for a short time; two was when I found out my mom had cancer; three was talking to her parents. I actually sat in the car for a while trying to practice asking them for their blessing without crying. After about 15 minutes of miserable failure I just decided to go in there and let it all out. Luckily my future mother-in-law and father-in-law gave their blessing.
After that I called my mom and told her I was going to propose, and she of course gave her blessing as well. It was time. I picked up some flowers at the store and headed home.
When I got home I gave Tag the flowers (which she loved) and then she asked me how church was. I said it was really great and that there was a great reading that I wanted to share with her. I went into the closet and grabbed the ring while she stopped her cat from eating her flowers.
We sat down with a Bible and I read her that passage. Then I said, “I feel like God was telling me to do this,” and I got down on my knee and asked her to marry me.
She was stunned and said, “Oh my gosh, are you serious? Are you serious?” I said, “yes” and was getting a little scared that she might say she wasn’t ready.
The she said yes and I became the luckiest man in the world. We spent the rest of the night on the phone telling everyone about what happened and just enjoying the evening together.
Tag and I are so excited and have found it hard to concentrate on anything else. Our favorite part of the whole situation is that we can stop talking about “IF we get married” and “IF we have kids” and start talking about “WHEN we get married” and “WHEN we have kids”.
We couldn’t be happier together, and right away we are going to have to figure out marriage stuff. How we are going to pay for a wedding? Are we going to get a house? How do we get in shape so we aren’t big fat slobs on our wedding day? Do we even want a honeymoon, and if so where should we go and how should we pay for it?
Luckily she didn’t want a diamond for her ring so I didn’t have to shop for one on www.diamondqueensland.com.au or any other diamond broker’s website.
As you might imagine, this blog is going to start covering a lot of these topics in the near future. I hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am!
And one more thing: Tag is an acronym for ThousandAire Girlfriend. Now that she’s my fiancee and I don’t want to call her TAF I need a new nickname for her. Suggestions are welcome.
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
Congratulations!
Congrats! I am happy for you. Remember though that engagement is a time to prepare for marriage not only physically and emotionally but spiritually as well. Don’t let that last one slip by in all the excitement. Because it truly is an exciting time! 🙂
Congratulations to both of you!
You’ll get plenty of advice from smarter people than me, so I’ll just leave it at: Congrats!
Congratulations! I dated my wife for about three years before we got married just over a month ago. Its really great, especially if you find someone you can truly be yourself with.
Congrats!
Woohoo!!! I wish there was a “like” button 🙂
Congratulations Kevin! Now comes the crazy woman wedding planning stage haha. It’s worth it though. I just found it easiest to agree with her on most stuff. Especially the colors. That’s important to them.
Congratulations!!!
Congratulations, I’m happy for you guys. Marriage is one of the greatest and one of the most challenging things you’ll ever do. I’ve been married for 10 years now, and every day that goes by I love my wife and more and I’m thankful that God brought her, my perfect complement, into my life. Sounds like you guys are in a similar situation. Blessings to you on your engagement and all the best as your big day approaches!
CONGRATULATIONS!!! I can’t wait to hear what you learn and teach us about your new financial planning 😀
Congratulations! That passage was a reading at our wedding. 🙂
I highly recommend premarital counseling. For us it was so much fun and it helped us focus on our marriage instead of our wedding – and it gave us a lot of confidence that we were ready to be married.
Oh, and regarding the moniker – You could call her Taf and then Taw but those aren’t as cute as Tag. Does she not want her real name used like you do?
Congrats! I say just stick with Tag… I had no clue what it stood for but understood it was your girlfriend at the time 🙂
Congrats man, best of luck. Stick with Tag, unless she’s willing to share her first name one day. You could just call her Future Mrs. McKee?
Nice work! So the ring did burn a hole in your pocket!
The next question is obviously, will you be getting a prenup, given your video!
Best, Sam
Awww, that’s such a cute story! Congratulations to you both.
(And yes, I’d also stick with TAG — that’s how we’ve all gotten to know her).
Congratz!
Congratulations! How about Thousandheress?
Congratulations! It’s good that religion acts as a positive voice for marriage, because the rest of society seems to be so negative about it.
Congrats! Use her name, if she’ll let you — that’s better anyway. 🙂 I heard that same passage on Sunday.
Taffy seems like a cool nickname? Everyone loves Taffy right?
gratsamundo man! can’t wait to read the new content on family finances vs. still having individual finances plus future planning finance topics (if that’s not confusing already!). for the nickname, i rule against TAF. i immediately read it backwards as “FAT” and wanted to voice a hard NO for this one. plus it’ll be temporary since then you’ll need to change it to ‘wife’ and taw/wat doesn’t sound good. i’ll try to think of another name, but i’m begging you not to go with taf/fat
Congratulations! I live “Thousandress” as well
Congratulations! How about TAP? ThousandAire’s Partner?
Looking forward to the wedding planning content. I remember when Lynn got married we had a lot of fun brainstorms about frugal wedding and honeymoon ideas. =)
Congratulations!!!
Yay!! Congratulations on your engagement!! I totally agree that it’s so much fun to now move from “if” to “when.” 🙂
Wahooo! Amazing! So happy for you guys!
Congratulations! May God bless your marriage!
Congratulations, Kevin!! We just celebrated our 40th. See if you can catch us! 🙂
AWESOME!!!! Way to go brotha! And crying totally = manly in these cases, so you’re all set 🙂 So happy for you guys. Life is good!!
Great and congratulations! This i the first post I read on your site and I really don’t know much about you or Tag but I wish you the best. Marriage is hard work but put one another first and there is nothing wrong with crying like a baby.
Great news! Congratulations 🙂
Please tell me that you got a pre-nup. Given your website I don’t see how such an item could not be mentioned in this post. I wish you good luck!
Wow, I’m late in seeing this, but awesome!I’d go with “Thwife” if it isn’t too late for suggestions. It’s just fun to say.
Really not trying to sound judgey, but have to say I was surprised to learn that you moved in with your girlfriend given how openly you have shared your faith (like in this post).
I guess it’s possible that you and Tag don’t have sex or fool around, but I don’t know of a couple that lives together that doesn’t.
If you weren’t a Christian, I would have never asked these questions, because if you don’t believe in the Bible, then I can’t hold you to that biblical moral compass.
I really don’t mean to judge. Promise. The big guy up stairs does all that. Just want to hear your two cents on living with Tag, feeling God’s guidance to marry her, but laying down next to her every night with nothing from my understanding of the New Testament endorses such behavior. Penny for your thoughts?
All that said. Marriage is awesome. You are gonna love it!
One’s behavior is usually dictated by cultural norms and ideals. I mean, honestly, 99% of people don’t wait for marriage anymore, even though 30% are practicing Christians! lol. Everyone sins. Christians sin, as hard as we may try not to. It’s our human nature. 🙂 All we can do is pray for forgiveness and keep trying to be Christ-like in our walk!
Yes, please do not call her Taf! That’s FAT backwards!!! LoL
Congrats, this is awesome news. 🙂 Also agreed on not calling her taf, haha…