Loose Diamond Engagement Article:
Kim and Jody

  Sometimes love between two people grows after years of friendship. Sometimes a string of misadventures leads people to abandon the idea completely. But occasionally love sprouts, blooms, and flourishes quickly when you least expect it.

  Loose diamonds? Diamond engagement rings? That kind of talk must be for other people. Kim couldn’t even find a decent date. She was discouraged with the whole dating thing. Her brunette hair and hazel eyes gave her a striking appearance. She was easily separated from the rest of the crowd, but who was out there to notice her? Was there no good man out there for her? One more lunkhead blind date and she would scream.

  One evening in October some friends convinced her to go to the local country dance place. Kim sat at a table staring into space. She didn’t want to meet anyone. She didn’t want to dance. She was bored to tears and just wanted to go home. She had decided it just wasn’t going to happen for her. Suddenly she noticed a guy at another table trying to get her attention. He certainly was handsome, but, Dear Lord, she can’t go down another dead-end road.

  During their first dance Kim learned that Jody was a Marine at home for some surgery on his broken arm. He had the whole Marine persona—the manners, the restrained strength, the pride, the self-assuredness, and, somehow, no arrogance. Should she give her heart just one more chance?

  Kim and Jody spent every waking moment together until he had to return to his base in North Carolina in November. During that first week apart Kim could not believe how much her love for Jody had grown and blossomed. She nearly pined herself away waiting for his return on Friday. Likewise, Jody realized that he was lonely and could not wait to see Kim again.

  Thus began a pattern of weekend visits during November and December. They each lived for the weekends, and each Friday Jody would gladly make the eight-hour drive from North Carolina to Georgia and back again on Sunday. One of those weekends he secretly came home a day early to do some diamond engagement ring shopping. Finding the perfect diamond engagement ring and asking her parent’s permission set the stage for the perfect Christmas Day proposal.

  On Christmas morning Jody’s present to Kim was a small box. Kim opened the box and therein found a beautiful diamond engagement ring. She looked up to find Jody, with all his Marine composure, kneeling on one knee in front of her and asking her to be his wife. As she consented she secretly thanked God for leading her to open up her heart just one more time.