Suitable Helper Found

Carmen and I just got engaged! :)
Here's how it happened (in brief - photos and other details to come when we have a bit more time):

Carmen took me out to dinner at Sushi Bar Hiro in Beverly Hills. It seemed like a fairly low key dinner - nice restaurant, but not too flashy; we weren't dressed up; and I didn't have big bunches of flowers or anything.

Towards the end of our meal when we were both stuffed, I went for "a toilet break". Whilst out of Carmen's hearing range, I called her parents and asked for permission to marry their daughter, which they calmly consented to. At the time, I was actually more nervous about asking them than I was about asking Carmen. But after they said yes, I began to get much more nervous about asking Carmen!

We finished dinner and drove back home. Now, instead of driving me home, I had to somehow get her to take us back to her house - because when we first decided to start going out we were outside her house, so I wanted to be there when I proposed. Besides, my house didn't really allow for the privacy I wanted.

So I made up some lame excuse about needing to get something from her place. At first she said she'd just bring it to me next time I saw her. But in the end I convinced her and she bought the excuse without raising any suspicion. Everything was still quite normal and nothing was out of the ordinary.

As we got out of the car at her place, I asked her, "Do you know how long we have been going out?"

"No..." she replied slowly, still not suspecting anything. Last year I surprised her with our 1,000 days anniversary - so me asking such a question isn't too strange.

"Well, today is the 3rd day of the 3rd week of the 3rd month of the 3rd year since we started going out." This was a nice coincidence that I happen to come across. "So after all this time, do you think you are ready to get married yet?"

Again, this wasn't too unusual. I had raised this topic of conversation before.

"Maaaaaybe," she teased.

"Well, perhaps I need to ask more seriously. But I don't have anything on me. But I do have my packet of cards." I pulled them out of my pocket. Now she was starting to get sussed.

I proceeded to do some magic and produced an Ace of Diamonds. I figured I needed a rose as well, so I produced a card with a picture of a rose on it! Then I spread the cards out and a big rose appeared across the length of the cards. Finally, I asked her to hold out her hands. I placed the cards on her hands, and when I lifted them up, the rose and the Ace of Diamonds became a real physical rose and diamond ring.

Then I got on one knee and asked her to marry me!

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! You're doing this really seriously! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" She went on for about 10 secs before eventually saying:

"Yes I would marry you!"

Praise God for creating marriage, and furthermore, creating this wonderful woman to be my helper.

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart."
               ~Proverbs 3:3 ~
(another reference to the number 3 :P )