So if you haven’t yet heard, this past Wednesday changed my life. Two days ago I asked my amazing girlfriend Rocio Quinones to marry me.
And she said yes.
Sweet.
Here’s how it all went down:
A little over a year ago Rocio and I had our third date at this little place in Decatur called Taqueria Del Sol. After we ate we walked down the street toward Java Monkey and I asked to hold her hand for the first time.
Wednesday was a repeat of almost everything…but this time, when I asked for her hand, I asked to have it forever.
I knelt down, told her how I genuinely believed that she was a gift from God to me, and slipped a ring on her beautiful hand.
After she’d said yes, I pulled out a letter I’d written to her years before. Before I had met her.
And here’s what it said:
Dear one,
Wherever you are, whatever you are doing today (August 18, 2007), however impatient you are in waiting for me, thanks. Thanks for waiting…thanks for being patient with my seemingly meandering path to find you. It has not been for lack of looking. I’ve traveled much in my search and yet you still seem to remain hidden from me. There’s nothing to worry about though. If I am meant to find you in this life, then find you I will. Questions like this should not be answered by those who cannot see the future.
Only God can put the kind of love we are both pursuing together.
Fate, luck and human effort can put together imitations, but neither you nor I are willing to settle for that.
And so we wait.
It’s not necessarily a passive waiting either, there’s a lot of asking, “Lord, is she the one?” “Should I spend more time with her?” Wow, have there been a couple that have been close. I thank the Lord for His protection, for giving me eyes to see. For allowing me to wait for the sweeter romance, the more powerful story, the marriage that He might use to mark history. Should I pursue or be patient?
There are a couple right now, even today, that I wonder about. If you are one of them, please forgive me for not sweeping you off of your feet immediately and uniting with you, ending your wait. Be patient with me, I am not an expert at this kind of thing.
I certainly know that I have grown up a lot over the past 6-7 years. I could not have led you then the way I shall lead you now. My God was so small back then, so Republican, so American, so much without grace. My mind tells me that He’s bigger now. Not that he has changed size, but He has very much changed my mind’s perception of Him.
I love Him so much more now, more than I ever did. I cannot tell you what my friendship with Him means to me, how much I love Him, or the ache I tangibly feel for the day when sin’s barrier between He and I will be permanently shattered. Words can’t describe things as mystical as this…
And so dear wife, this is my best gift to you. For all the human fulfillment of togetherness, release from loneliness, and joy that aligning your life with another’s can bring; ultimately my love for you is best played out through my love for Him.
The fact is, we don’t make very good masters of ourselves. Just as in the pursuit of freedom, I find myself in bondage to the things I thought I was so free to do, so free to pursue; giving you whatever you want for yourself will never be my intention. I love you so much that I will deny your wants and desires (even at the cost of temporary harmony) in favor of what God wants and desires for you.
I certainly won’t do it perfectly, but my love for you will always go well beyond the shallow frivolities of this world’s fleeting fleshly desires.
It is my strong belief that there is greatness inside of you. God designed you for a purpose only you can fulfill and my role as your husband, as your leader, is to help you tap into that greatness. Sin’s temptation is to sell off that greatness for smaller wants, smaller dreams, unremarkable trinkets of a life spent on one’s self.
I will fight for your greatness. I will fight for the romantic epic that will be revealed through your life on this earth as you lean into the sweet rhythms of your eternal story.
And when God achieves grand glory for His name through you and the life He’s entrusted to you, you will have no bigger fan than me.
Because we are one, your success will be my success; your dreams, my dreams.
What fun it will be to live this kind of a life with you, my love.
That’s the kind of thing worth waiting for.
Until we meet,
Matt
I cannot describe with words how amazing it is to be joining my life together with this passionate, amazing woman of God. If you haven’t yet met her, I can’t wait to introduce you. I just know you’re gonna fall in love with her too.

----Rocio with the ring a few minutes after----







posted February 6th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Congratulations Matt! Holly and I are so excited for you. You have been a regular part of my prayer life for many years. Two things I continually pray for you is that God will protect you from worldly temptations and that he will bless you with the perfect woman, and life partner, for you. You remain in my prayers.
posted February 4th, 2010 at 8:53 am
Ahaha… Matt, way to go!
I’m very excited for both of you!!!
posted February 1st, 2010 at 11:55 am
Thanks James! My uncle is James Elsberry as well…he is the head of the Education Department at Indiana Wesleyan University.