Chapter 55: Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson died today. :( I'm really sad and it is almost surreal. If you know me well, you know that I love Michael Jackson. I'm sad...I feel like this not real. The interesting part is that this is my father's birthday.

Chapter 54: First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then Comes...The Motherhood IV

My thought today is that each situation is different for each person. I was talking to one of my co-workers and she told me an interesting story of how her decided that he wanted to marry her. She said that she was living in Nigeria and her boyfriend at the time moved a month before to Detroit on a scholarship for his Ph.D. Apparently, he was afraid to ask her so he arranged for her dowry to be paid. He had been talking to his family and her family in Lagos and in neighboring cities from Detroit. She had no idea that he was doing all of this until she was teased by one of her cousins. The cousin told her that he had eaten her yams or in other words, he had eaten some of the food that was sent to the family as part of her dowry or bride prize. She didn't get a chance to ask her future husband until she had found an engagement ring in the mail. With that he called her and asked when was the wedding date because he had been talking to his family and her family and they were tired of waiting and trying to make plans. She said that to this day, he has never formally said, "will you marry me?" :) She said that she asked him a few years ago about the matter. Mind you, they have three adult children together--the oldest is 27. He said that he was afraid that she would say no. I share this to say that sometimes when we are waiting for the big "ah-ha" moment, our big moments can sometimes come in small packages. I'm not looking for a huge romantic proposal. I know my man and that doesn't make him or the scenario smaller than the next person and their scenario. What may be small to someone else, may indeed be big to me and that's okay--in fact, it's a good thing.