Did Bobby get all romantic and get down on one knee? Here's the story, narrated by the man himself with comments from the lucky lady.
	It all started one Saturday morning, as I sat in a bible study with a bunch of guys from Helen’s church. My mind started drifting, as if often does when I’m suppose to be listening, and I started thinking about how I wanted to ask Helen to marry me when we went to Birmingham to visit my family. Then I suddenly realized that we were leaving in exactly ONE week! So if I was going to do this, I better get on it! That was how I ended up talking to Helen’s parents the next day in the garage while Helen was inside her house watching TV. I have to say, it was pretty good timing. Helen’s dad needed some help talking some boxes out of the car. So I thought, well, I might not get a better opportunity to do this, so here is goes. There I was in the Chow’s garage about as nervous as I’ve ever been in my entire life and stumbling over more words than I thought possible. After in got through telling Helen’s dad about how I wanted to ask his daughter to marry me that following weekend, to my great relief I heard the most amazing words come out of his mouth… “Ok.” That afternoon I felt one of the greatest senses of relief I have ever felt in my life. With that, I called my sister, Kimberly, who still lives in Birmingham with her husband, and we proceeded to make the plans for asking the big question. The first step of the plan was to give her something special everyday leading up to the big day. The trick though was to have a reason to give it everyday. And let me tell you, the plan worked like a charm. As you will see (often to many people’s amazement) Helen didn’t realize what was going on until about 10 seconds before I gave her the ring. Monday through Thursday before me left for Birmingham, I gave her flowers everyday. The first few days I gave them because she was feeling sick, then she had a bad day at work, and so on. Then on Friday I gave her a present “just because I knew she liked candles.” On Saturday, once we were on the airplane I gave her a card that basically said that I was excited that she was coming to B’ham to hangout with my family and get to know them better. So all this time I just thought that he was being really sweet, loving me with the right love-language: gift-giving. Didn’t suspect a thing. Back in march, I made Helen fill out a March Maddness bracket and our bet was that whoever won, the loser had to plan an entire day for the winner. I actually pulled off the narrow victory (by 2 points) but I told her on Saturday night that even though I had won, and she still had to plan an entire day for me, that I wanted to plan an entire day for her too… and that day would be tomorrow. So I didn’t suspect anything either because I just figured that since we were in his “hood,” he would know where to go, what to do, what to see, etc. It just made sense to me because I just thought that he was being really sweet. So Sunday morning Helen woke up to find a card sitting outside her door with her name on it. I basically told her in the card that I hoped the day would be an encouraging day for her. After she got ready, she came down to a second card and a full breakfast (including grits) prepared by me. (The next time you see her, ask her if she likes grits… her answer might surprise you.) As long as we’re here already, I’ll answer the grits question. I like them as long as they’re cooked right. With a little bit of butter and salt & pepper. No cheese. Not too dry, not too watery. After breakfast we went to church where John MacArthur happened to be the guest speaker. This was an unplanned treat. After church we went out to eat with Ricky and Tammy. I had given Ricky a 3rd card which he set at the table of the restaurant before we got there. From the restaurant we went to the Birmingham Art museum. I decided to take Helen there, because she really likes art. It was at the art museum that the real fun began. This was really cool too because I do love art and I always love to visit different museums. I didn’t think that the Birmingham museum would have too large of a collection, but I was wrong! The week before Kimberly, my sister, had talked to the people at the art museum about setting something special up for when we came. There was a free guided tour at 2:00 on Sunday afternoon, so we decided to have more cards set up for Helen at every stop. Kimberly went there earlier in the day before we got there and met with the tour guide. The tour guide took her around the museum to the different places the tour would stop and Kimberly set up the cards with each had Helen’s name on it and a small rose. The cards themselves were clips from my journal. They were set up chronologically so Helen could see what I had written about her since our time in Beijing together, where we met. Now this was weird. I was really confused as to how the cards got there. In fact, I assumed that Bobby was just slipping the cards next to the art pieces as we were taking the tour. Had no idea that the ENTIRE museum was in on this whole thing. It wasn’t until like the 9th or 10th card that I realized that the cards were “planted” before we got there. Oh, and everywhere I turned, thinking that it was just southern hospitality and therefore dismissed any suspicions, the security guards would smile at me! So all I did was smile back. ha! But the cards were really sweet and I was very touched and impressed at how much planning Bobby did for this “nice date.” As we were leaving the museum something almost tragic happened. I needed to get our parking ticket validated. I handed the ticket to the security guard at the desk. When she looked up and saw Helen holding all the cards and flowers, she said to her, “So YOU’RE the one that got proposed to today!” Unbelievable!!!! All I could think of in my mind was “All this hard work trying to keep this thing a secret and you go and blow the thing!!!!” But as I said, it was ALMOST tragic. Fortunately Helen was still as clueless as before. All she said was, “Uhhh, no, I just got flowers.” And I could tell she was serious, so I just played it off and said that there must have been some misunderstanding. Whew. Yeah, so I was very naïve. This will be a good time to explain myself. Bobby and I hang out a lot. In fact, we hung out so much before all this happened that I didn’t think he would ever have time to talk to my parents. And I knew, and he knew, that we would not get engaged until he had talked to my parents. So yeah, any suspicions, out the window. From the art museum I took Helen to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. My sister had also gone ahead of us there to set some more stuff up for me. The first place I took her was the rose garden, where more envelopes were waiting for us. Then I took her to a more secluded part of the garden where there was a small wooden gazebo next to a little pond. In the gazebo my sister had laid down a blanket covered in rose pedals. She had set up six candles and six dozen roses (people ask me all the time and the answer is no, the number 6 has no specific meaning other than aesthetic purposes). In the middle of the candles and flowers was a framed poem that I had written to Helen. Off to the side was a bottle of champagne and some strawberries. Once again. My thought: “Nice date.” We sat down on a bench in the gazebo and I began to read some scripture to her. I read Proverbs 31 and parts of Song of Solomon. I told her that these verses were what Helen was to me. Then I read part of Ephesians 5 where Paul tells husbands to love their wives like Christ loves the Church. I told her that this was what I wanted to be to her. By this time you’d think that there would be no way that Helen wouldn’t know what was coming, by then again, that is what YOU would think. Not Helen. In her own words, she thought it was just a really good date. =) After I read from the Bible, we got down on the blanket and I read the poem to her. (Read the poem) It was during the poem that Helen realized that I was about to propose to her. You might want to read the poem first. Then you can guess where I figured this whole thing out. The very last line of the poem says “So much honor and joy to my life you will bring, if tonight you say yes when I give you this ring.” Right after I read this line, I pulled out the ring, got down on my knee, and asked Helen to marry me. And I said YES! =) duh! After I put the ring on her finger and we hugged for a second, we suddenly heard clapping coming from a few yards away. When we looked up, there was my sister standing up from behind some bushes! She had been there the whole time taking pictures of us! (See these pictures and others) I was really surprised by everything, including his sister, Kimberly, popping out of the bushes and clapping. It was so funny. She told us about how when she was setting things up, all these people passed by and asked what was going on. She had to explain to everybody and some even asked if they could stay and watch! We took a few more pictures there at the gardens as we drank champagne and ate a few strawberries. Then I took her to dinner at Ruth’s Chris Stake House where once again my sister had gone earlier and asked them to set up a special private room table for us. When we arrived at the restaurant and before I could even tell the hostess who I was, she looked at me and said, “Mr. West, your table to ready.” Helen was just amazed (I think I was too) and was like, “They know you here? How often do you come here??? By this time I was on cloud nine. =) What was really cool was that we were at a steakhouse and I was craving for a good slab of meat. When we got the out table, there waiting for Helen were more flowers and a large picture frame that had 4 different pictures of the two of us. The restaurant was incredible, and everyone there kept on congratulating us. If fact our waiter even called Helen “the future Mrs. West!” After dinner we went back to my parents’ house for a small engagement party with my family and a few friends.