Last night at 2:09 a.m., my phone rang. Caught in a deep slumber, I wasn’t coherent. As I gained more consciousness, I looked at my phone and saw that Carrie, my brother’s girlfriend, had FaceTimed me. When I saw the missed call notification, I also noticed countless text message notifications. I haphazardly looked through our family group message before calling back. Still too disoriented to make sense of the roughly 40+ new messages in the thread, I FaceTimed Carrie back.

Well, the FaceTime call wasn’t exactly necessary. It was pitch black in our bedroom and it was also dark where Carrie was at. As she answered my call, I heard my brother’s voice in the background. It didn’t take long before the good news came out…

“We’re engaged!” they exclaimed.

This photo was taken moments before Glen took Carrie to the site of the proposal!

—————–

Carrie’s birthday was yesterday. After a day of wooing her with activities and fun, my brother led her to believe that they were capping the day off by going out to eat at a favorite restaurant. On the way to dinner, Glen made up an excuse that he needed to drop by his work. When Carrie and Glen arrived at his office, he took her into the break room area. SURPRISE!

My brother had organized a surprise 29th birthday party for Carrie. In attendance were co-workers, friends, and family. It was a joyous scene in and of itself, but things were about to get a lot more memorable.

The room of approximately 25 people sang happy birthday to Carrie. After she blew out the candles on the cake, my brother drew closer to her. Fighting back emotion, he told his girlfriend that he wanted to spend every birthday with her for the rest of his life. He then got down on one knee…

…GASP…

…she said YES!!

Carrie said YES.

—————–

This morning in our text messaging thread, Carrie revealed that the wish she made when blowing out the candles was that Glen would ask her to marry him (how sweet is that?). Everyone in our family was wishing the same thing.

There is no debating that Carrie makes Glen extremely happy. It has been so fulfilling to see those two fall in love. As Sidney says, Carrie is an unmistakable positive force in my brother’s life. Although I felt that a proposal could be coming soon, I didn’t predict it would be last night. However, if there ever is surprise news you want to be woken up to in the wee hours of the morning, an accepted marriage proposal between two of the people you care about the most is it!

Celebrating after the successful proposal!

I wish Glen and Carrie a happy engagement. Fun and exciting days are to follow and I hope they savor each one. Welcome to the family, Carrie, we love you! Don’t Blink.