Our engagement story!

“You find people in your life who love you. And what those people do is, because they love all of you, even your flaws, is they give you permission even to love yourself.” Viola Davis

I resonate with this quote as I am glad that I found the one I love, and that we will be tying the knot soon. Here’s the story of how he popped THE question. (This is my version of the story as I muse here on the blog [after being away for a while]. Stay tuned to the next blog post where he will share his side of the story. )

Let’s start from way back. As a young girl, I don’t think I had ever built castles in the air about what my engagement day would look like. I didn’t know if I’d wanted a grand ceremony with family and friends around, or maybe an intimate session with my beloved. However, as I watched several engagement videos on social media over time, I figured that I would like it intimate and thoughtful. Memorable too. Being the planner that I am, I also had a Pinterest board with an idea of the ring I wanted. In rose gold. Not too flashy though. Classy and minimalist. Not a tall order huh? I know my fiancé is quite the statement-maker. His grand ideas never cease to amaze me. But I surely didn’t see this coming.

It was our last day of a family trip and we were busy trying to gather all the things up and pack for the long journey back home. I had plans to go to the grocery store and buy spices we don’t have back home (you can see where my priorities were, in the kitchen 😂) Anyway, he told me to keep my afternoon open and I had a gut feeling to dress well, coz you know, anything could happen. Wink wink!

While walking around the streets of downtown Miami, we came across a bridge over a mainstream river before it joined the ocean. A yatch was passing by and we stood by looking at it.

Hosea quipped, “that’s like the one we’re going to be in later today.”

“Oh really!” I thought…”must be nice!”

I kept quiet incase I betrayed my excitement. I could picture the ocean breeze blowing through my hair as we rode through the sea, into the sunset. Haha jokes on me, it was all a decoy! We finished the shopping and got into an Uber that took us to a destination. It was supposed to be a 40 minute ride.

“Eh…where are we going?” I asked, my curiosity rising.

“Calm down. Don’t worry! You’ll just see.” He said.

“Okay Joy,” I told myself, “you need to be patient and not ruin the surprise.”

I sat quietly and later dozed off during the journey, waking up about 30 minutes later. Hosea kept texting someone saying we were going to be late. I could see him breaking a cold sweat as we made our way through traffic. I felt for him as indeed, the traffic was terrible that Friday afternoon, yet here we were working on American time. Where 5 pm is 5 pm sharp. Africans must have truly thrown their clocks ⏰ out somewhere. Hehe, no shade…but my fellow Africans, we need to work on our timeliness. Myself included.

I could see on the Uber driver’s maps that we were inching closer to the location. Although, it didn’t have any water body around. You can imagine what was running through my mind. “But didn’t he say earlier that…”

Anyway, I complied and sat pretty. We got to the location, Miami Executive Airport.

“Wow, okay, what are we doing here? What’s this man up to? Interesting! “

“Welcome my love, “ Hosea said, as he stretched his hand out to help me out of the car and into the main office. The manager welcomed us and told us that she understood our tardiness, Friday traffic was usually bad. She then went on to introduce us to their company dealing with private chartered flights, of which we were going to get our own, to look at the sunset view.

It then dawned on me. On the first day in Miami, Hosea had looked up at the setting sun, painted in wonderful hues of orange and pink, and mentioned that he would love to watch a sunset up close and personal before he left. Now here we were fulfilling that dream. I should have seen this coming!

We signed a few forms and were introduced to our very young pilot, Valentina. I was blown away by her youth and that she was a woman! Girl power activated! We took a few pictures and then boarded the plane after safety instructions. The plane took off and up and away we went. It was surreal. The Miami skyline was beautiful, although there was cloud cover that day. We passed over the busy Miami downtown, Millionaire’s Row with massive homes for the wealthy, the Miami Beach …all breathtaking.

Hosea asked me to take a video of the skies on my side of the window and as I turned back to hand the phone back to him, there I saw a ring. He had a whole speech, which to be honest, I can’t remember! Except where he asked me to be his wife, and where he said we’d grow old and toothless together to which I responded…”you’ll be toothless alone! I will have a full set of teeth!” Haha… and of course I said yes! 😃

 

We got back to land and did the quintessential picture of him on his knees, and thereafter, took a few moments to take it all in. The views. The moment in the skies. Wow! Isn’t God good! We got back home and told family the great news and also called friends to share the news! It really was magical and I’m glad we have some pictures to share.

The journey to the altar has been quite something so far, and all in all, we look forward to the goal of being together forever. To my love, Hosea. Ni we mtima wange, nakupenda sana.

 

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Engagement shoot credits:

Photography & Creative Direction: @samorashoots and @michajsr

Location: Naishola Gardens, Limuru. ( It is such a dreamy and serene place to be, amidst tea farms and the chilly Tigoni weather.)

Shoutout to my amazing dear friend, Samora who did these engagement photos, with her able assistant, my brother Michael. You can check out their pages and engage them for photography/videography work…I highly endorse! They made the photoshoot so much fun and I thank God that we had the honor of them doing the shoot for us.

Should I say styling by me? Yes. Styling by Mueni Muli. Fashion enthusiast. But for real, thanks to Hosea who was a darling during our video calls planning outfits for the shoot. I’m starting to see us in those matching couples outfits because tell me why we had so many complementary colours in our closets? Its the earth tones for me!

 

Stay tuned for Hosea’s version of the story on the next blogpost.

Until next time,

Sola gratia (Grace alone)