February 19, 2009 was a perfectly normally crazy day here in the Democratic Republic of Congo, until I went out to dinner with Chelsie to Chalet, a classy restaurant on Lake Kivu. As we sat down at the table, I commented that Kerby I always used to sit in the same place when he was here in June. Chelsie left to go to the restroom, and as I was looking at the menu, I saw someone coming up the stairs from the lake. Glancing up, I imagined seeing Kerby. I blinked again, and he was still walking towards me with a big smile. My jaw dropped and all I could say was, “What? I’m dreaming. You can’t be here. I’m dreaming. What are you doing here? What!” He hugged me and said that he truly was there. All I could think was that I was dreaming and I would wake up tomorrow and he wouldn’t really be there. As I stood there trying to grasp his presence in the Congo, two weeks before my return, he dropped down to one knee and proposed, saying "I am here, I'm here because I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Cristina, will you marry me?" In total shock and excitement, I said: YES!!!! I spent the next two weeks trying to grasp the fact that I was engaged and that he would fly back with me to Minneapolis on March 3rd.