{Laura Beth & Tyler} Completing the Puzzle

After almost a year of dating, I left for Senegal, Africa in October 2012 to serve and do ministry for 9 months. Tyler had a semester left of school at NC State and would start his job in the workforce in January. Being apart for 9 months was not something we were necessarily looking forward to, but we both decided to surrender our relationship to the Lord and trust in His goodness in our lives.

Our relationship quickly took on a new look after a hard goodbye in October and over the next 3 months we learned how to do things differently to make it work. Skype dates became a normal thing for Sunday and Thursday evenings, and we started finding joy in the small things in our relationship. Time difference, lack of internet, and different schedules makes it very difficult, but through this process we learned patience and grace with one another in a new light. It was fun and exciting to approach our relationship in a new way. We started talking about Tyler visiting, but with his graduation and starting work it didn’t look like he would be able to visit me until the spring. With those plans in motion, I was preparing for over 5 months of being apart and not being able to see him until March. Little to my knowledge, that was not the plan at all.

On January 12th, I woke up to my roommate asking me to come watch the sunrise with her on the roof of our building. Although this is typically not what I like to do, especially with it being my morning off, for some reason I followed her upstairs. As I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and attempted to take in the beautiful sunrise, I realized that Tyler was standing there in front of me after 3 months of being apart!! I spent the whole day trying to take in the fact that he was actually here in Africa with me.

As I got ready for dinner that night with Tyler and my 6 teammates, I was told to dress up by my team leader, Katie, because we were going somewhere nice. When it was time to leave everyone had left except Katie and I. She told me that I needed to go to the roof of our building and get something. What I found was the first of many puzzle pieces. Katie told me that we had to walk somewhere, but she couldn’t let me know where we were going. As we preceded to walk to our destination, I kept meeting my teammates along the way with each person having another piece to my puzzle. Each puzzle piece had the title of a Parachute song (our favorite band), with a note on one side, and a part of a picture of Tyler and I on the other.

After 6 completed puzzle pieces, I reached the Corniche, one of my favorite places to watch the sunset on the west coast of Africa. The completed puzzle consisted of a picture of Tyler and I at the first wedding we ever went to together, with me holding the bouquet that I had caught. As I preceded further, the last member of my team was waiting for me with a small picture frame. Inside of the frame was one of the roses from that same bouquet that I caught over 8 months ago and a note that said “‘Forever and Always’ – Though flowers may not always remain beautiful, my love for you will never wither. It will continue to grow forever. I will stand by you always. Me and you.” I handed off all of the items that I had collected along my walk and my team told me that there was someone waiting for me. I walked towards Tyler with excitement and humility that the Lord had placed this man in my life. After sweet words and reflecting on our relationship, Tyler asked me to be his wife and without an ounce of hesitation, I said yes!! We are excited that we are getting married on November 2, 2013!!

Tyler and his band of conspirators had the foresight to film the adventure that was Tyler’s proposal. Watch it below

(LB shows up at around the 4min mark)