Life is like a box of Chocolates; My engagement!

I haven’t taken the time to blog in a very long time, but I found this would be the perfect opportunity to get back to it 

On November 5^th while visiting for a London church conference my boyfriend, Kaspar, asked me to be his wife! ..but since I haven’t blogged in a while, allow me to rewind back a while back..way back..

In 2005 (10 years ago. Wow, I’m getting old.) before my senior year of highschool, a family I babysat for had asked me to be their summer nanny in Finland. I agreed and off I went. While in Finland, I also got the opportunity to visit Stockholm, Sweden and Tallinn, Estonia. I remember walking the old town streets and thinking how life would be to live in a place like these, or even the faint thought of falling in love with a stranger in a foreign place, but I absolutely knew for sure that Europe was of no interest to me. People were different and at the time I was too selfish to notice how unusual I must have been to them..

Flash forward two years, after moving to Arizona for college, I studied the bible and became part of the amazing fellowship I am a part of now—The International Christian Churches. I remember people telling me how amazing it would be to be a missionary on foreign lands, and in my mind South America sounded like a great plan to me.. but God had a different plan in mind ;)

Shortly after I studied the bible, across the country in 2007, Kaspar (a complete stranger at the time) was also studying the bible. I remember thinking what if my future husband would be from a totally different part of the world, but I never knew how true this thought would become..

LA Conference 2010

It was in 2010 that we would come to cross paths in person. We met in passing at a conference in California, and when I recognized that his name tag said that he was from Estonia, of course I shared my experience of visiting there. After meeting, we were able to grab some time and hangout on a date; though I thought he was a really great guy, I had figured that trying to maintain a friendship from Europe to Hawaii would be a challenging task, and I wasn’t really focused on building friendships with anyone specifically at the time.

 .. the next couple years in my memory flew by.. I had started dating another guy and venturing life in a different direction, but I always enjoyed the times I got to catch up with Kaspar and hear about all that was happening in Estonia and Sweden.

In January 2014 after a series of events including an end to a relationship, I was given the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and attend a bachelors program for ministry. It was then I decided that Riverside would be a good ministry for me to be a part of through advice and help from close friends—unaware of what God had in store, it turns out Kaspar was also moving to Riverside to train under the Inland Empire leadership to eventually go to Sweden.

Riverside Campus Leaders

Being in Riverside Kaspar and I were able to lead a campus ministry together. Although I had considered that maybe God’s plan would be for us to become closer friends, I totally closed that door in my heart due to fears and such. Looking back, I see that God gave me that time to just learn to be a friend and a co-leader to Kaspar; in the end I think I learned to trust God and learned to value my friendship with Kaspar in a selfless way.

After 6 months of leading together, Kaspar had to move back to Sweden and I moved to Palm springs.

It was about 6 months later in the winter of 2014 I was asked to join the Stockholm church planting.

Going to Sweden that April was exciting, it was everything I never thought I wanted, but now I see it was everything I needed.

Sweden send-off service

It was here in Sweden that God started opening my heart more and more in my friendship with Kaspar. After being in Sweden for 4 months, I knew it..he was it.

We became boyfriend and girlfriend Sept 19 at one of my favorite places; an amusement park J

Gruna Lund Amusement Park

God would have it that I was granted a year visa to stay in Sweden, yet it was going through the whole process of paper work and ‘what if I cant stays’ that I knew this is the place I need to be and Kaspar is the one I want to be here with. For me, I believe, it wasn’t just an emotional decision—I'm not really a rash emotional person—for me it was a plan I had seen God preparing me for from before I even knew who God was.

:) <3

So while at a lunch with some of my closest friends, a box of Swedish chocolates was presented and passed around, Kaspar had taken a box of chocolates to pass around and when he got to me, I declined on the chocolate offer twice, but then Kaspar gave me an interesting look that seemed as if he was saying “no really take a chocolate” ...when I went to grab a piece of chocolate, there it was, a ring in the middle of the box. I was so stunned. I had no idea what to do, I just froze. So he took the ring, got down on one knee and after explaining that life is like a box of chocolates and that our friendship was one to keep forever, he asked me to be his wife, and I said YES!

…I have to say, I consider myself to be the most privileged girl. I think it's incredible how you can go through a lot and even be tempted to believe life will always be a cycle of hardship, but God is so faithful. Something that I look forward to is to be able to not only spend my life with him in day-to-day living, but being with someone that I can pray together with and wrestle through the spiritual battles with--Kaspar is a man loyal to God and committed to always being better for God, for which I admire. I am grateful the way that God has orchestrated everything so creatively. When it's God's plan, no amount of distance or time will stop it.

….btw no date set yet (will keep you posted) –this whole marrying abroad business is a job in of itself ;)

-ash