I'm kind of new to this blog thing, so bare with me as I make adjustments. As most of you probably know by now Jake asked me to marry him last night. What most of you don't know is how he did it. I'll go through the details in a little bit but first i'd like to go over our story. Jake and I met on facebook in April of 2008, it was really random. We're still not sure how we found eachother on there, we didn't even have any mutual friends. I had posted something kinda silly in the "About Me" section of my profile and Jake made a somewhat smart aleck remark about it and then realized he didn't quite know me and apologized and recognized that it was a bit weird. I thought it was funny, and a replied back with my response which then triggered a chain of emails. Not less than a week later he gave me his number in hopes that I could join him and some friends to go see a movie, but of course I was a workaholic at the time and had to say no.
As the days went on we kept texting and we became pretty good friends pretty fast. It wasn't long until he asked me to go on our first date together. We kept it pretty casual, which was good seeing as we didn't know each other too well yet. We took a drive up the canyon and then went out for ice cream and caught a movie. Then we drove around a little bit afterwards and he took me home. The texts continued on and I don't think a day went by that we didn't talk. I'm not too sure on the dates but less than a month later we had our second date, which was a little less casual if I may say so myself. He made me dinner, and it was delicious!! I wasn't quite sure how to respond, I was a bit taken back. I loved it though!!!
Fortunately, at the time we were both in very different situations as far as dating went. And i'll explain why I say fortunately in a second. I think we both were still dating around and we both had someone else who we knew just a little bit longer than we had known each other so it didn't work out at the time. We were still friends, really good friends actually and we talked basically everyday. So around 4 or 5 months after that inital date both of us were single again and luckily had the guts to tell eachother how we felt about eachother. I still remember the day, pretty sure I cried when I found out. I was so happy!!
Jake was preparing to serve his mission in Boston, Massachusetts so we really couldn't date much. But we got in as much as he could before he left, it was hard to avoid getting to attached.
Now the reason I said fortunately before is because Jake and I both agree that if we would have dated those months before we would have probably broken up because of his mission. So instead, we became great friends. Jake left on his mission on October 15th, 2008 and we wrote eachother the entire 2 years of his mission. I was so excited to run out and check the mailbox each week, I loved getting letters from him. I have a whole box of letters and pictures in a box in my room organized by date. I am a little OCD, but that's alright. Around 2 months before he was scheduled to come home I was getting so excited and still so nervous. I was planning my outfit for the day he came home, what I was going to say, and what I was going to do.. But things didn't really go according to plan.
October 9th, 2010 I received a phone call late at night from my transplant coordinator at the University hospital informing me that they had a liver for me. I had been on the transplant list for about 7 months at the time and didn't have any idea when this was going to take place. Jake's mission had just been extended to October 26th so I knew there was really no way I was going to be here for him the way I hoped I would. After some prayer and fasting I decided to accept the liver and wrote Jake one last time via e-mail and went on my way. I had my transplant on October 10th and the next scheduled email I was going to receive from him was the October 11th.
As everybody knows by now, my surgery didn't really go so well. There were a lot of complications and I actually ended up being unconscious and unresponsive for a few weeks. I don't remember anything really from those first 3 weeks in the hospital. I do however remember the day he came home from his mission, just barely though. All I know is he was there, and he came with his mom and he brought me a Patriots t-shirt with signatures and well wishes from some of the missionaries in Boston. I still feel like that was just a dream, from what I hear though. I was very unresponsive that day, i had my eyes closed all day and the only time I would respond is when his name was mentioned. He was and still is my prince charming and he came to wake me up that night. I am so grateful that he came, and he was there for me though this entire very grueling, stressful, and just bad time in my life. He brought my parents dinner, and he would come up and sit by my bed and just hang out really. He helped administer blessings when I really needed them and held my hand and brought gifts. He was amazing!!! And still is!! I am so glad that he kept his patience and waited for me to get better, I think he was the first person I went out with alone besides my parents once I was able to.
We are together almost everyday, even if it means late night trips to my house after a long day of work, school, and sometimes even band practice. Oh boy I love this guy!!! How did I get so lucky? Can anyone tell me? I sure can't figure it out.
September 4th, 2011 (yesterday hehe) Jake and I spent a good portion of the day together. He went to a baby blessing with me and stayed after and hungout with me and a couple of friends. Once we got back to my house he took off pretty fast and asked me if I would come over at 7. I joked of course and said maybe, but I might be late. My parents were just kind of relaxing and then started getting ready and said they had to go see my grandparents. I was watching the clock pretty closely because I was so excited to go to his house. So finally around 6:45 he tells me to head on over. So I get there and park across the street because there were quite a few cars there, and as I always do I texted him and let him know I was there.
Once I was at the door his little sister answered and led me into the front area and then told me she was going to put a blindfold on me. So there I am in his house with this blindfold on and I am getting a little nervous but very excited at this point. So cute Jenna gets me a little dizzy and then hands me off to someone else, the first persons hand that I took was my sister Jessica. I was actually pretty shocked, I thought for sure Jake was going to take my hand. She walked me around and shared some of her fondest memories of me and just shared all of her love and excitement for me and then handed me off to my other sister Courtney. Courtney did the same with me and then handed me off to my brother Caleb. He also did the same and then handed me off to my soon to be Mother-in-law and she shared with me some of the memories we had together and expressed her love for me and then of course handed me off to my soon to be Father-in-law and he did the same with me. I was then handed to my Mom and she walked me around and shared these memories with me and expressed so much love and excitement with me, it was just awesome. She walked me down the stairs very carefully and my Dad took my hand and told me that his favorite memory of me was the day that I was born and he expressed his love for me and sat me in a chair and told me to take my blindfold off. I was having a bit of trouble with it but I could hear music in the background and it was Jake playing our song "Only You can Love Me This Way" on his guitar and was even singing it for me. I took my blindfold off and the room was dark and there were candles and a very special slideshow that Jake made for me to watch. There were pictures of me from when I was very little up until now with pictures of Jake and me together. He used a green screen effect on this which had him singing our song and playing his guitar on stage and even on a roller coaster. My man is so talented!!! At the end of the slideshow the words appeared on the screen "Abby, just on question.." and on the next slide "Will you marry me?" and he came out from behind me and got down on one knee and expressed his love for me and told me that I was his bestfriend and I said "without a doubt, yes!"
I am so incredibly grateful to my Father in Heaven for letting me stay here on this earth and for putting this wonderful, absolutely amazing, caring, generous, humble, extremely attractive man in my life. All the pain I have felt in this last year is gone now, and I have to say... This was definitely worth it!!! I love you Jake Jackson!!!
