Permanent Birthday Present

Ten years ago, we'd had an incredibly rough month in what was already an incredibly rough year. In January of 2013, Justin and his family had been blindsided by his father suddenly walking out on his mother after decades of marriage. Thinking surely this was just a momentary lapse in judgment, both Justin and his brother had tried desperately to talk some sense into him with little success. 

Then, just days after an awkward family Easter, on April 8th, Justin's father had a major stroke. He'd been living alone, so it was hours before he was found. Justin had already been working in Houston when his dad was life-flighted there, so he had been able to be with him from day one. Justin was hopeful that this would pull the family back together — until it was discovered that his dad had been having a secret affair for the last several months. 

And so, with Justin's birthday quickly approaching, I wanted to plan something special. Something to ensure he had a peaceful, relaxing day and felt uplifted and celebrated. And I wanted to give Justin’s mom a break from trauma as well after all she had endured. 

I joined forces with my parents to book a cute little beach house two blocks off the Seawall in Galveston so all of us could spend a long weekend at the beach. I knew we couldn't fix anything, but we could love on Justin and his mom during a traumatic time. Justin had mentioned that on this trip he wanted to take pictures of wildlife to potentially submit to National Geographic. I thought it was an odd request, but he doesn't ask for much. And after the month he'd had, I would've dressed up in a bird costume and squawked on the beach myself if it made him happy.   

I'd planned to drive down to Houston from Dallas a day early to see Justin before we all drove to Galveston the next day. When I showed up on Thursday night, he was reeling from a seemingly endless tsunami of bad news. I said, "I'm taking you out." We hit up downtown Houston and didn't head back to the hotel until I'd successfully made him laugh.

I met my parents at the beach house the next afternoon while Justin finished up work. He got caught up in Houston rush hour traffic on his way down, so to kill time until he got there, we went for a walk on the beach. Justin was getting closer and had been texting me quite a bit asking when we'd be back at the beach house. This seemed out of character for him. He doesn't normally track my whereabouts that closely. But — again — I gave him grace given all that was going on. I assured him we were on our way back and should get there about the time he pulled up. He said he wanted to be sure to get to this beach he found to take pictures at magic hour. I didn't understand why we needed to take pictures right away, but I shrugged it off. 

When he rolled up, he said hello to my parents, told them we'd be back soon, and whisked me away in "Trucky": his trusty old Chevy. Ten minutes turned into twenty turned into thirty. I didn't even know Galveston Island is that long. 

As he gunned it down Seawall Boulevard, he kept steering with one hand and holding up his phone to the horizon with the other. He had this camera nerd app called Sun Seeker that tells you when the sun will set. He truly seemed like he was in a race against time. At this point, I was a little concerned that my normally laid-back boyfriend was acting so intense, but this seemed super important to him, so I let it go. Finally — once we'd almost run out of land — we arrived as San Luis Beach. 

It was very remote. It was just us, some cranes, and a few fishermen. He'd obviously already scouted this location, so he showed me the best spot on the beach for us to go. After taking a few quick pictures, he passed me the camera to me to take some. I was a little confused since this was supposed to be all about him taking pictures for National Geographic. While I clicked away, I tried to get some of him too. He gave me a tense smile and pointed me to some birds to capture. I took what I thought were some pretty solid pictures and turned around to pass him the camera. But he was not where I expected him to be.

Justin freaking out.

He was on one knee holding up a seashell that had been made into a ring box. It was cradling the exact ring I had pictured in my head. I was in shock. He was telling me so many beautiful things, and I have no doubt he meticulously rehearsed the whole thing to death. But I couldn't tell you a single sentence he said except, "Will you marry me?" I forgot to say yes because I was so busy trying to get him to stand up so I could hug him. So he said, "Is that a yes?" "Yes!" I said. Then I see a man walking towards us snapping pictures like a paparazzi. Justin had hired a friend to place the ring in the special seashell on the beach, hide behind the sand dunes, and take pictures. Justin's weird behavior was starting to make a lot more sense.

Now that it was dark, the mosquitoes were out in full force, so we got back in the truck and headed to the beach house. As we drove, he told me how he'd spent weeks driving down to Galveston after he wrapped on his show in Houston trying to find a remote beach because he knew I'd hate to be the center of attention. He was correct. Then he talked about the convoluted process of finding a true Galveston seashell (not a store-bought one) to turn into a ring box but not realizing that that would mean that it would blend in with all the other Galveston seashells when he was frantically trying to find it on the beach while I took pictures of random birds. His friend behind the sand dune was silently trying to point him to the shell without letting me know what was going on. No wonder poor Justin was fighting for his life all evening; everything was so close to blowing up.

Not me scratching my ankle with my foot because of the mosquitoes.

On the drive, I texted my parents and apologized for how late we were going to be eating dinner. They seemed too happy to care. When I asked if they knew this was happening, they said they knew it was going to happen soon, but they didn't know it was happening that day. Justin’s mom knew though, and she'd made it to the beach house by now. By the time we got there, the only place that was close and open that late on an off-season weeknight was Bubba Gump. Not really the romantic, celebratory meal you typically envision on a night like that, but we had a blast.  

Now, I am usually a pretty astute and discerning person. Everyone was shocked that I didn't figure it out sooner. But, in my defense, his whole world had just crumbled and it was HIS BIRTHDAY! I really did not expect that he had the motivation or the presence of mind to design and purchase a ring and choreograph an elaborate proposal. I knew he wasn't all that into celebrating his own birthday, but he truly took it to another level. 

Now after sharing this special day for ten years, it seems fitting that he made me his permanent birthday present. I hope I can continue to love him in such a way that he doesn't want a refund.