Now What?

Thanks to everyone for their well-wishes, I really appreciated it and even though I've only been blogging for a short while, makes me feel like a part of the blogville family!

Ahh, so today's exactly one week since i've been engaged. Hmmm, how has it been?

Several things actually. The first is apparently not everyone is happy at the news of their friend getting engaged. I told some of my girlfriends and their retort was just "cool". Which is odd. These are girls I went to college with. We've done everything together for a while now. They know everything I've put on this blog and they were the first ones I told after Bolaji and I had only been dating for two months "I think he's the one". At first I was kinda like "ooookay?" but now I'm just over it. One of my closest friends just told me "you know what? no matter what their reaction was it doesn't change the fact that you're getting married!" LOL. I like that attitude and have adopted it.

Second, I was in shock for like the first day and then I just got happier and happier. That has been a wonderful surprise. And to think there's still tooons more of happy stuff to happen, it's amazing! I keep staring at my ring at odd hours of the day. I'll be going over a brief and just take two seconds to stop and stare at the thing and smile.

Third, in-laws! I love Bolaji's Dad. He's just like way cool. He's very brilliant, very knowledgeable but also quite approachable. Of course it helps that whenever he sees me he always goes "hey Kemi-babe" lol. Very cool dude. Now Bolaji's mom scares me so! Not that she's mean or anything like that towards me. It's just that she's kinda the backbone of everything so I'm afraid if I cross her, I'm just in for it, so I'm always so extra careful when I'm around her. Also Bolaji is veery close to his Mom, not in a Mama's boy kinda way (as i don't think his mother would even stand for that!) but they can sit and gist for hours and he tells her everything (or used to, i'm not sure anymore). But she's so sweet too, I don't know why I'm scared of her lol. She's also very well grounded in Christanity and very principled AND blunt, so you can imagine that's a deadly combo lol. Someone told me every girl should have a healthy dose of fear for her mother-in-law :-) Also I'm not quite sure what I should call them now. Bolaji says I should just ask them what they'd like to be called, I ran it by my mother and her response was "ABSOLUTELY NOT, they're your mom and dad and you call them mom and dad". She thinks asking them is rude, what do you guys think?

FOURTH, although Bolaji and I are looking at a bit of a long engagement, I'm already getting bits of wedding fever and it's only been a week! I've gotten mixed reactions on the long engagement thing. My mother is fervently praying that something comes up to put a wrench in that plan. The woman wants more grandbabies! :-) I just don't see how we could fit it in any shorter, between Bolaji's work, my work and travel, and planning for grad school, then us paying for our wedding ourselves. It seems impossible but we'll see. That being said, it's not stopping wedding fever from gripping me. I've already started looking into locations and things like that, mostly because Bolaji and I have decided to find approximate costs of 1st and 2nd options and then find which one fits better into our budget. I think I'd like to do that as soon as possible.

FIFTH, somehow having my ring makes me feel more like a woman. Like I've grown into myself. It's a bit odd as it's just a thing, a material thing. I don't know how to explain it, I just feel like wherever I go because I have this symbol on my finger I have to represent both of us in the best light possible. Before I didn't have that, I just walked about anyhow just being me but now I feel like anywhere I am and how I am is a reflection of Bolaji as well. This is exciting and new and different. Also I have this amazing feeling, like I'm just so excited about building a life with this person, all the experiences we're gonna have together, the rough times, the good times, the time my water breaks for our first child, when the last child graduates from college, our professional goals and dreams for ourselves being realized. I feel like a beautiful new phase in my life is now opened.

Last, God is good to me. He's faithful to me. I testify He's a good God.