My Engagement Story

Hey everybody! I know that most of you have already heard the news. I was going to tell all of you myself even if it was just through the blog but news travels faster then I do;) But I wanted to tell you all myself so here goes. I am engaged!!! Curtiss asked me to marry him yesterday while we were in Cluj and I said “Yes!”. I know that you will all want to hear the story and I’d love to tell you all in person but this is the next best thing so here you go, I will be as explicit as possible without grossing you all out;)
You all know that we went to the city of Cluj a few weeks ago to take Sora Aneta and her daughter Mina to a hearing clinic and that we went back a second time with them to pick up the parts of the hearing aid that had to be special ordered. The city looked like it would be nice to actually get to see it as a tourist place so it was designated as our next destination for a date. August is vacation month around here, almost everyone has the whole month or more off so the roads are crazy to drive on (well they are crazy anytime but when you add people from all of Europe to the crazy people already here it gets very interesting, I won’t tell you too much because I want all of you to come and visit me;) and since both of us are the adventurous type we decided to take the train. Curtiss went online to find the train schedule and since we didn’t want to have to get up too early we decided to take the latest departing train that left the station yesterday, it left at 5:51am.
All the other ones left at one or three something and that seemed a little early;) we got up at four and left the apartment at five with Mr. Archer driving us to the station, the train was on time and was much nicer then what we were expecting. The trains here just about all look like they were made a hundred years ago and haven’t been taken care of during that time, but this train was one of the new ones and it was quite nice with lots of leg room and not too dirty (a Romanian once told Curtiss that if he travels on a train to make sure that he buys a newspaper to read so that after you read through the first page you can put it on your seat and have someplace clean to sit) It was a three hour ride and we had a good time just chatting and watching the scenery go by, enjoying one another’s society. We got to the city at nine and walked from the station to the part of the city that we had been in before. When Curtiss had looked up a map of the city he had seen that there were ruins somewhere close to where we had been the first time we were there and since we knew that it was suppose to get quite hot in the afternoon we decided to find the ruins first thing and then when it got warm later on to find some place indoors or shaded to visit. We only had a general idea of where they were so we started walking that way not really sure what we would find, we didn’t even know if they still existed.
We came to the base of a hill where we could see stair and walkways where people were walking and thought that if we were going to have a fortress that is where we would put it so we decided to go and check it out. It looked like the main stairway up the side of the hill was on the far side of the hill but we found a little trail leading up the side of the hill and decided to take that one. The trail had definitely seen better days, where there were stairs they were kind of broken and parts of the trail looked kind of like a washed out goat trail but we had fun climbing it;) part way up we came to a level spot with a little wall that we sat on to take a break as we were a little winded and there was a good view over looking the city. While we were sitting there Curtiss handed me the binoculars so that I could get a good look at the city and while I was very happily looking through them he started rustling through the bag he had carried our supplies in.
I finished looking and handed him the binoculars so that he could look too and instead of looking he hands me a little wooden box and says that he has something for me. I went to open the box and the lid wouldn’t budge and after watching me for a few seconds Curtiss finally said (with a smile) “it’s a puzzle box you have to figure out how it opens” So I started looking and with a few clues along the way finally got it open. While I had been working on it Curtiss had gotten down from the wall and stood in front of me. I opened the box and found a beautiful pearl necklace and a letter and as I held them in my hands Curtiss says “before you read that (referring to the letter) I have a question to ask you. Joanna will you marry me?”
(Now I have a question to ask all of you, Curtiss is under the impression that he is not romantic what is your opinion?)
I said “Yes” and after that I eventually got to read the letter;) It was from Mrs. Archer telling about the necklace, The necklace belonged to Mrs. Archer’s great-great aunt who had gotten them from her father in law who had been a sea captain and he had gotten the pearls on a voyage that he took to the South Seas.
Lena Curtiss Freeborn (who was the original owner of the necklace) had a daughter named Faith, which happens to be my middle name. So the whole story is very cool and I love them. A little while after I got the pearls on Curtiss told me that to make our engagement official I had to keep looking in the box and so eventually I found the hiding place of the ring. He has told me that he will get me a diamond ring once he get s to NY but for now I have a little silver gypsy made ring with a heart on it. It is very small and only fits on my pinky so he is going to get me another one, so by the time I am married I will have gotten three engagement rings plus a wedding band, not bad huh? ;) I think that I am one of the only girls alive to receive an heirloom necklace and a gypsy ring for my engagement tokens, O, and we can’t forget about the puzzle box;)
I know that many of you have already sent your congratulations and we both thank you for them. We would also like to thank all of you who have been praying for us, it has meant so much to me to know that I haven’t been alone during this time. Now I have to go as we are discussing wedding plans;) I am sorry that it has taken me so long to post this, I was planning on doing it earlier today but the Internet wasn't working for both computers and Curtiss was looking at plane ticket prices so that we could work on what date works best for a wedding.
I will post some pictures later for all of you romanticists