Yay! That all sounds promising! How exciting! I really hope that's what's going on, but it sounds like it is an inevitable fact, whether now or a little bit later.

My situation was a little bit odd, but I am a little bit odd, lol! My husband and I had been platonic friends for so long and had a long time to built up romantic feelings and get to know each other so when he finally left BM and married me, it was such a huge, life-altering decision that we both took it more seriously than most people who are casually dating and on the evening we got together we talked all night about everything and made sure that we were both fully committed. I don't think we actually said it that night, but we both assumed that we would be getting married. Things were so crazy that it didn't come up for a few weeks, but one day we were snuggling on the couch (and the snugglage does increase pre-proposal!!! H was a one man, walking soppy love poem) and he said, "hey, if I asked you to marry me, not today or tomorrow, but maybe the day after, would you say yes?" and I said, "duh!" and we laughed and kissed. The next day, we were driving around town and we saw the same diamond billboard with a giant, tacky diamond ring on it that said, "say it with diamonds" and we kept laughing because we KEPT driving past the damn signs. Later that afternoon, we were geeking out at an antique store (amazingly, I snagged a guy that loves to go to antique stores!) and I noticed H looking at the ring display. This particular store has an amazing antique ring collection and I went over and immediately noticed a delicate and beautiful tiny ring with an rectangular dark stone. It looked black and the first thing I thought (and said) was "I bet my little sister would love that!" because she wears a lot of black onyx jewelry. We asked to look at it and H looked kind of pink and happy and more enthusiastic than he usually is over jewelry! (he usually heads straight to things like giant nautical chests and manly looking hunks of metal. He once tried to convince me that we needed a vintage diving suit, the giant, heavy metal ones, in our living room!). He held the ring up in the light and the sun hit it and we saw that it was actually a gorgeous, gorgeous deep green and it turns out that it's a rare gem that is only found in one specific mine in Africa and the ring dated from the early part of the last century. I immediately loved it and was raving about it like I always do about stuff I like (I like a lot of stuff) and H got all quiet and got this huge smile and just gave me this questioning look? Then he said, "do you LIKE it?" and I totally knew what he meant. I said, "yes!!!" and he said, "well, then, we should buy it." and pulled out his wallet (he had totally taken out a giant wad of cash before hand and was hoping we would find something special! I just was too clueless to do any sleuthing beforehand!). We were both grinning like double idiots and the sales lady totally knew something was up, but since it wasn't a traditional diamond engagement ring, I don't think she wanted to put her foot in her mouth and say anything, so she finally asked us if this was for something "special" wink wink or "just because" and H said, "it's just because someone is special!" She laughed, but I could tell she was dying of curiosity so I came back later that day and told her that it WAS an engagement ring and she was thrilled.
Anyway, so we bought it and then it was really awkward because he hadn't officially proposed and neither of us had been in that situation before (I had been engaged before to my first serious boyfriend, but that had been a very boring and traditional engagement with a boring diamond ring). We were sitting in the parking lot of the antique store and H looked like his face would burst from smiling and I was in shock and giddy and he just asked me if I wanted to go ahead and put the ring on!!! I asked him if that would mean we were "officially" engaged, as in call our families engaged and he grinned and nodded and I put that sucker on immediately!!! Then, to be silly, I drew a little mustache on my finger and posed with ridiculous sunglasses and a little finger mustache with my sparkly new ring and H took an "engagement picture" with his cell phone to send to his friends! It was hilarious and definitely not your typical engagement! We were sooooooooo excited after that. My family immediately came over and started partying and H's mom burst into tears and made H's dad get on the phone too to hear the news. She thought he would never get married and the first time she saw our rings she burst into tears and gave me a super tight hug. H has only seen her cry three times in his life and two of them involved our wedding/engagement rings! For some reason, we didn't think to show her our wedding bands the first time we saw her after the wedding (which was just a courthouse wedding and we had a reception with his family separately later) and she saw them for the first time while we were saying Grace at a family gathering at their house and she just lost it! She told me that she never thought she would see the day where her "baby" was wearing a wedding band! To make it even better, we coincidentally picked out pretty much the same exact wedding bands that they have! She was super emotional that day and gave me some family heirlooms that have been in the family for generations. It was a wonderful, bonding moment with them and it makes me really happy that although BM was in H's life for a long time and is the mother of his children and in some of the family pictures in their house, she was never his wife and never a member of his family. They call me their "daughter" and have treated me like family from the beginning. I share their name and his mom cried quite a bit over the rings and went on and on about me being the newest Mrs. -------. It was really, really cool!
Being engaged was so much fun that I almost didn't want to get married! (jk!) The only part that sucked, ring-wise, was giving the ring up to get it sized. I have very small hands and am very small boned and so even though the ring was tiny already, we had to take it down three sizes! It was really hard to give it up for a week, but I wore a tacky little twenty-five cent grocery store ring that H bought me as a joke for a couple of days and then switched to a sapphire and diamond ring my mom got me for my birthday years ago. It was a wonderful feeling to finally have my real engagement ring on my finger after it was sized! It really feels official then. A word of warning though: after you do become engaged, be very careful not to get in a car accident, because driving while wearing a sparkly new engagement ring is very distracting!

Anyway, I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you and I hope the ring is beautiful! Keep us posted!!!

DH and I knew where we were headed, no secrets. A co-worker who also makes jewelry came over one evening with diamonds and a book of settings for me to choose from. I got to design my engagement ring and I love it! The hard part was the fact that once DH got the rings..I never even peeked at it until it was going on my finger. Why was it hard? Because the ring came home one day and sat on top of the fridge...for months! The whole issue was that he wanted to talk to my dad first...to ask for my hand. And my dad was a contract worker who would be out on the road for months at a time. Meanwhile, everyone that entered our house got to see the finished product of my ring...but I managed to resist the urge to look. It was almost impossible, but I did it! I waited and I was so glad that I did!!!

Loads of luck and well wishes Milomom!!!

Very exciting for you!

My H and I had already talked about it and went together to pick out the rings. He wouldn't give me the ring because he felt like he still needed to do it "properly."

We went out to our favorite restaurant one night and that's where he popped the question. It was magical...

...until we were leaving and BM was there with the skids waiting for a place to sit. She started screaming at us from the moment she saw us until we left the premises. :O

*sigh*

Congrats!!!

Congratulations! Happy Wedding Planning to you!