Was I going to hurl?

5:45pm: I was getting sick. My stomach felt like those poor blokes on James Cameron's ALIEN movie when baby aliens would wiggle their way into some victim's body. I was hoping to just get through this without barfing.

The whole plan already was set into place, but I was afraid there might be a slip-up. I was sitting at my desk staring at THE emails coming in and thought about the plan.

GOING OVER THE PLAN
2:00pm: I dropped by the store to pick up the ring. I was very excited about it. It was custom-made and had an almost flawless stone.

I was ushered in, and the lady smiled sensing my anticipation - and brought out the ring. The cuts were perfect. One diamond in the middle surrounded by ten smaller diamonds. CHECK OFF RING.

I've already made arrangements with a dozen roses and a sign that read "Michele, will you marry me?" at a local eatery near the church. The waitresses were more than eager to go with my plan and thought it was 'romantic' and 'cute'. CHECK OFF TEAM.

I devised an elaborate plan where I would burn the dinner and make an excuse to just go out since dinner was at 6:00pm, and worship/communion was at 7:00pm. I would have to do a 'method acting' to convince Michele and make sure nothing was suspicious. Sure enough, when she came home at 5:00pm, she found the lamb chops burnt to a crisp on the pan and Mr. Grumpy.

PLAN EXECUTED
5:15PM: I came over and acted fustrated and mad at myself. She said we should try to eat it, I said no. She then noticed I was 'down' and offered to cook dinner. She suggested making salmon patties - and she could do it in ten minutes - I said no again. I was pretending to get more irate and have her wilt to my schemes. I pointed the logic in going to eat at this local eatery since it was on our way to church.

Out of pity, she relented with concern concern for 'Mr. Grumpy'.

THE DRIVE OVER

6:15PM: We were driving over, and I was continuing my Oscar-worthy performance. I pretended to be impatient and irate. Michele was being a trooper and being Miss Cheer. I was Mr. Grumpy. I could tell she was really concerned and it took all of me to not laugh.

I opened the door at the parking lot, only to catch on the corner of my eye, the gift bag from the jewelry store. I cussed silently, my cover could be blown. Michele didn't notice it, and we walked inside the eatery - and I was greatly relieved.

We were standing in line, I saw one of the waitresses. The cashier noticed I winked at the waitress - probably thinking I was flirting, when in actuality I was signaling her. Michele notice me quickly ordering, I turned and huffed to her, "Aren't you ready to order?". She ordered and I had to quickly turn around because I was giggling so hard, to not laugh.

I escorted her to the table and pulled a chair for her to make sure her back WAS FACING THE WAITRESSES.

6:30PM: We talked a bit at the table and I made up a story about the fustrating day at work. Michele listened with patience hearing me rant and rave. After several minutes our order came, but Michele noticed we didn't have water. She got out of seat to get some....but I rushed in insisting she sit down.

As I turned the corner, I noticed the two girls holding the roses and sign. They were bug-eyed ready to round the corner. I motioned to them to wait. They nodded as I frantically asked on the of waiters to find me a glass of water.

I came back with one glass, and mumbled to Michele, "They are coming with the othe glass..." and before I could finish Michele got up. Mr. Grumpy turned to Mr. Panic, and right on cue the two waitress came out. Michele stood shocked. And then she read the sign and she turned red and then I got down on my knee and asked, "Michele Skolrood, will you marry me?"

Michele exclaimed with a huge smile, and said, "Of course-- yes!"

The entire eatery clapped as we kissed.

***

During the coversation Michele leaned over and hit my arm, "This entire time it was an ACT!"

I laughed, "Yep."

"And you burned perfectly good lamp chops."

I shrugged my shoulder, "I had to...it made the whole deception genuine. They were $6.00 only."

Michele wrinkled her nose and smiled, "I even felt bad for you....you had me going, I had no idea."

**

Later we worshipped, and I could feel Michele grab my hand at a song with a verse "..thank you for the blessing in my life." That's what it's about...a relationship bound by value, heart, soul, and Christ.

**

Later that night Michele said something to me that made it all worth it, "I will never forget this day...Gordon Wong."

Same here Michele.

8hrs, One Muslim, One House and Everlasting Impact

Michele was crying hearing the story of Raza.

This Muslim mother of four, wept recalling the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia as she described weeks of not finding food for her newborn baby. She was desperate and had to resort to digging in garbage to find a piece of bread, soaking in dirty water to keep her daughter alive.

This was my Saturday.

It was a day full of irony, and one of answered prayers. I was praying that Michele and I would impact this world as a couple and building this house for Habitat for Humanity we did just that.

We were able to be involved with several things:

1) Teach this moderate Muslim mother of four that Christians are way different from what they are taught. This mother was not a radical Muslim extremist (she hasn't been to a mosque for years and didn't stop once to pray to Saudia Arabia). We were able to shed light about Christians and hopefully shed the love of Jesus to this woman.

2) See and contribute to the strength of this country: immigrants with vision and drive can power America to her strength: helping people realize a dream of freedom and common decency. Raza, only eight years ago was weeping helplessly realizing she could lose her baby, three years ago she was crammed into a tiny apartment and now, working eighty hours to support four children and a husband who lost his legs in the Bosnia war -- now exclaimed with joy, "America is still the land of dreams."

3) Opened the door sharing Christ. Raza was struck by the background I had about Bosnia and the events that transpired there. She was struck by my goal that day of impacting her: I told her she had a second chance in America and told her it was my joy with my fiancee to set aside the day to labor with her to help her realize a dream. Obviously the Lord opened a door, because Raza wanted a picture of Michele and I for her new home. She made me promise.

Michele and I went home and we forgot about the sweat, and labor to realize we might be bringing another child back home to heaven.

New Events

Diana Krall is releasing a new album Sept 2006! Woo-hoo! Didn't even know about this.

Wedding is set for May 12th! Got only three major things to wrap up - limo, invites and rerhersal dinner.

Apple just gave a preview of Leopard, the new OS X operating system, and it looks like a winner. Shameless copy-cat by Microsoft with their VISTA system. The most impressive demo of Leopard was Time Machine - a 3D interface for backup and retrieval.